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CONTEMPORARY    IRELAND 


CONTEMPORARY 
IRELAND 

By    L.    PAUL-DUBOIS 


With    an    Introduction 
By  T.  M.  KETTLE,  M.P. 


LlBRM** 


Ï  MASS 

..    


DUBLIN:    MAUNSEL  AND    COMPANY,    LTD. 
NEW  YORK:   THE    BAKER   AND    TAYLOR    CO. 

1908 


2  o  "  1  -5  o 


INTRODUCTION 


It  is  the  French  that  have  come  closest  to  the  secret 
of  Ireland.  De  Beaumont,  that  great  pupil  of  De 
Tocqueville,  in  1839,  Cardinal  Perraud  in  1869,  painted 
our  national  life  with  the  authoritative  brush  of  masters. 
In  addition  to  these  we  have  had  an  unbroken  line  of 
studies,  sketches,  and  monographs,  in  which  Daryl, 
Béchaux,  Le  Roz,  Foumier,  Schindler,  Potez,  Filon, 
Flach,  De  Lavergne,  and  a  cloud  of  other  witnesses 
have  said  their  word.  Edouard  Rod  shaped  the  personal 
tragedy  of  Parnell  into  a  novel  ;  and  in  one  of  his  most 
recent  stories  Paul  Bourget  has  shuddered  at  the  dresses 
of  fashionable  Dublin,  and  yielded  with  lyrical  abandon 
to  the  drowsy  and  purple  magic  of  the  Western  lotus-land. 
M.  Paul-Dubois  rinds  one  half  of  the  explanation  of  this 
old  alliance  in  history,  and  the  other  in  likeness  of 
blood  and  temperament.  In  exchange  for  the  swords 
of  the  Wild  Geese.  France  sent  us  back  priests,  or  at 
least  the  learning  that  turned  Irish  boys  into  priests. 
She  sent  too,  in  later  and  not  less  disastrous  years,  Hoche 
and  Humbert  ;  and  both  nations  have  good  memories,  and 
until  a  very  little  while  ago  they  shared  a  common  hatred. 
The  Irish  mind,  is,  moreover,  like  the  French,  "  lucid, 
vigorous  and  positive,"  though  less  methodical,  since 
it  never  had  the  happiness  to  undergo  the  Latin 
discipline.  France  and  Ireland  have  been  made  to 
understand  each  other. 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

M.  Paul-Dubois,  then,  has  the.  advantage  of  tempera- 
mental sympathy,  wise  forerunners,  and  a  long  tradition. 
He  had,  further,  the  advantage  of  language,  for  it  is  perhaps 
only  in  French  that  Sociology  can  become  scientific 
without  ceasing  to  be  human.  His  personal  equipment 
is  of  the  first  order.  Son  of  the  late  President  of  the 
Académie  des  Beaux-Arts,  son-in-law  of  the  great  Taine, 
and  himself  one  of  the  chief  officials  of  the  Cour  des 
Comptes,  he  is  a  member  of  the  group  which  Brunetière's 
erudite  enthusiasm  gathered  round  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes.  Was  it  not  Taine  who  originated  the  phrase 
"well-documented,"  and  made  it  the  touchstone  of 
all  books  dealing  with  social  or  historical  science  ?  At 
all  events  it  is  in  that  spirit  of  thoroughness  that  M. 
Paul-Dubois  has  wished  to  write.  The  extent  of  his  reading 
may  be  gathered  from  the  references  in  his  foot-notes. 
He  paid  more  than  one  visit  to  Ireland,  and  had  he  but 
met  some  member  of  the  Irish  party — of  which  he  writes 
with  a  harshness  that  is  constantly  in  contradiction 
with  itself — he  might  fairly  claim  to  have  met  everybody. 
The  Irish  reader  of  his  book  may  not  be  in  entire  agree- 
ment with  his  conclusions.  To  someone  armed  with  special 
knowledge  on  this  subject,  his  exposition  may  seem 
inadequate  ;  to  someone  moved  by  special  passion  on 
that  subject,  his  criticism  may  even  prove  an  irritant  ; 
but,  when  all  is  said,  his  five  hundred  crowded  pages 
represent  the  attempt  of  a  mind,  at  once  scientific  and 
imaginative,  to  see  Ireland  steadily,  and  to  see  it  whole. 
If  it  is  comforting  to  be  understood,  it  is  also  of  some 
profit  to  be  misunderstood  in  a  friendly  way.  M.  Paul- 
Dubois  confesses  on  our  behalf  no  sins  that  some  one  or 
other  has  not  already  shouted  from  the  house-tops. 
Whatever  he  may  have  to  say  of  the  internal  life  of  Ireland, 
his  verdict  on  the    international  issue  is    given  clearly 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

and  definitely  for  Ireland  and  against  England.  His 
voice  is  raised  for  the  Gaelic  League,  and  against  linguistic 
Imperialism  ;  for  the  ploughed  field,  and  against  the 
grazing  ranch  ;  for  Home  Rule  and  against  the  Act  of 
Union.  One  may  wish  to  enter  a  caveat  against  this  or 
that  contention,  but  the  book  is  founded  not  on  prejudice, 
or  unreasoned  feeling,  or  raw  idealism  but  on  a  broad 
colligation  of  facts  ;  and,  with  all  reserves  made,  I  believe 
that  it  will  in  due  time  take  rank  with  the  great  studies 
of  modern  communities  like  Bodley's  "  France  "  and 
Mvins terberg's  "The  Americans." 

What  then,  is  the  Irish  Question  as  seen  by  this 
sociologist,  so  inspired  and  so  equipped  ?  It  is  "  an 
extreme  case  of  social  pathology,"  an  instance  of  the 
phenomenon  called  arrested  development.  It  is  to 
history  that  one  naturally  turns  for  proof  and  illustra- 
tion of  this  thesis  ;  and  if,  as  a  great  Shakespearean  critic 
has  said,  tragedy  is  simply  waste,  the  history  of  Ireland 
as  it  passes  before  us  in  M.  Paul-Dubois'  Introduction, 
marshalled  in  sombre  and  picturesque  lines,  is  essential 
tragedy  indeed.  It  matters  nothing  whether  we  approach 
it  in  the  spirit  of  those  who  desire  revenge  or  of  those  who 
desire  reconstruction  :  the  impression  is  the  same.  A 
civilisation  shaken  by  Norse  invasion  before  it  had  quite 
ripened  ;  swept  by  Anglo-Norman  invasion  before  it 
had  quite  recovered  :  a  people  plunged  in  an  unimaginable 
chaos  of  races,  religions,  ideas,  appetites,  and  provincial- 
isms ;  brayed  in  the  mortar  without  emerging  as  a 
consolidated  whole  ;  tenacious  of  the  national  idea, 
but  unable  to  bring  it  to  triumph  ;  riven  and  pillaged 
by  invasion  without  being  conquered — how  could  such 
a  people  find  leisure  to  grow  up,  or  such  a  civilisation 
realise  its  full  potentialities  of  development  and  discipline  ? 
There  are  writers  who  would  have  us  burn  our  Irish 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

Histories.  But  the  historical  method  imposes  itself, 
not  out  of  political  passion,  but  by  a  mere  scientific 
necessity,  upon  all  students  of  contemporary  social,  or, 
indeed,  spiritual  problems.  What  is  no  doubt  important 
is  that  the  past  should  be  studied  by  the  social  reformer 
not  for  its  own  sake  but  for  the  sake  of  the  present,  and 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  present.  It  is  by  this  purpose 
that  M.  Paul-Dubois  has  been  guided  in  his  masterly 
Historical  Introduction  ;  and  I  do  not  know  of  any 
summary  of  the  same  length  which  traces  the  forces 
of  current  Irish  life  so  clearly  to  their  origins,  and  sets 
the  fabric  of  fact,  by  which  we  are  to-day  confronted, 
in  such  true  and  vivid  perspective.  But  over  and  beyond 
that,  his  Introduction  possesses  the  interest  of  literature. 
The  period  since  the  Union  has  never  been  outlined 
with  more  telling  or  more  human  touches.  O'Connell, 
the  inventor  of  that  "  constitutional  agitation  "  which 
is  now  the  prime  weapon  of  all  democracies,  passes  away 
leaving  "  a  great  memory  but  not  a  great  party."  Young 
Ireland  affords  us  the  supreme  instance  of  the  antithetical 
temperaments  ever  to  be  found  in  Nationalist  politics  : 
Davis,  the  reformer,  inspired  by  love  of  Ireland,  and 
Mitchel,  the  revolutionist,  inspired  by  hatred  of  England. 
And  so  through  Famine  and  Fenianism  we  come  down 
to  the  brilliant  feebleness  of  Butt,  and  the  icy  passion 
of  Parnell,  who  "  had  more  followers  than  friends,"  and 
to  the  struggle  of  the  Gaelic  Renaissance  for  "  psycho- 
logical Home  Rule  " 

II. 

For  this  is,  in  last  analysis,  what  M.  Paul-Dubois  takes 
to  be  the  deep  malady  of  Ireland  :  She  has  not  gained 
the  whole  world,  but  she  has  come  perilously  near  losing 
her  own  soul.    A  certain  laxity  of  will,  a  certain  mystical 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

scepticism  in  face  of  the  material  world,  an  eloquence, 
which,  in  depicting  Utopias,  exhausts  the  energy  that 
might  better  be  spent  in  creating  them,  a  continual 
tendency  to  fall  back  on  the  alibi  of  the  inner  life,  make 
Ireland  the  Hamlet,  or  still  more,  the  Rudin  of  the 
nations.  Is  this  to  say  that  she  is  unfit  for  modern, 
economic  civilisation  ?  By  no  means.  M.  Paul-Dubois, 
having  sounded  every  weakness  and  surveyed  every 
difficulty,  ends  with  the  belief  that  the  forces  of  re-growth 
will  prevail  over  the  process  of  decay  ;  and  that  although 
Ireland's  last  cards  are  now  on  the  table,  she  is  capable, 
if  she  plays  them  well,  not  only  of  preserving  an  ancient 
people  but  of  creating  a  new  civilisation. 

What  is  the  path  to  this  achievement  ?  First  of  all, 
under  the  present  regime,  England  is  the  enemy.  If 
Ireland  is  to  realise  herself,  she  must  become  mistress  of 
her  own  hearth,  her  own  purse,  and  her  own  cupboard. 
She  does  assuredly  stand  in  urgent  need  of  peace  from 
politics,  and  so  far  her  Unionist  critics  are  right.  There 
is  indubitably  a  deep  sense  in  which  a  nation's  life  begins 
where  her  politics  end.  People  speak  as  if  the  outcry 
against  Parliamentarianism  were  a  novel  and  a  unique 
thing.  But,  fifty  years  ago,  Marx  taught  all  realists  to 
crack  the  shells  of  political  formulas  and  parties,  and 
judge  them  by  the  moral  and  economic  kernel  within. 
To-day  you  can  pick  up  anywhere  in  Paris  or  Brussels 
half-a-dozen  pamphlets  called  "  The  Crisis  of  Parliamen- 
tarianism," "The  Absurdity  of  Parliamentarianism,"  or 
"  The  End  of  Parliamentarianism."  But  that  peace  from 
the  purely  political  struggle,  which  is  so  indispensable  if 
Ireland  is  to  develop  character  and  create  material  wealth, 
can  come  to  her  only  as  a  result  of  political  autonomy. 
Until  autonomy  is  won — carrying  with  it  a  re-adjustment 
of  taxation — "  on  the  cause  must  go.  "   'And  the  politicians 


x  INTRODUCTION 

who  keep  it  going,  whatever  their  special  party  or  tactics, 
are  playing  the  part  of  economic  realists  quite  as  effectively 
as  any  worker  on  the  land  or  at  the  loom. 

M.  Paul-Dubois  naturally  devotes  many  chapters  to 
the  Land  Question.  He  rightly  treats  it  as  a  complexus 
of  three  questions,  the  tenure,  the  distribution,  and  the 
use  of  the  land.  The  first  two  are  being  solved,  in  a 
fashion,  at  the  expense  of  Irish  rates  and  taxes,  by  the 
Estates  Commissioners  and  the  Congested  Districts  Board. 
Landlordism  is  dying,  and  dying  meanly,  "its  last 
thought  being  of  a  bargain  to  be  made."  The  edifice  of 
Feudalism  is  being  dismantled  at  a  cost  that  raises  a 
very  real  menace  of  national  bankruptcy,  but  at  all 
events  the  grim  walls  are  coming  down.  But  while  the 
liberation  of  the  Irish  countryside  from  landlordism  was 
necessary,  it  is  not  sufficient.  The  farmer  must  learn  to 
use  his  land  productively  ;  and  so  there  must  be  a  great 
development  of  agricultural  education,  leading  up  to  a 
general  system  of  "  mixed  farming."  He  must  learn  to 
combine  ;  and  in  this  respect,  at  least  as  regards  the 
small  holders,  Co-Operation  possesses  the  secret  of  the 
future.  He  must  come  free  of  the  egoism  and  pessimism 
which  have  remained  in  his  blood  since  the  Great  Famine  ; 
and  nothing  can  expel  these  except  the  singing  and  dancing 
Gaelic  League.  But,  even  with  all  this  accomplished,  he 
will  still  be  a  snake-strangled  Laocoon  until  he  has  in 
some  wise  reformed  and  mastered  his  Railways  and 
Banks. 

When  we  turn  to  the  industrial  condition  of  the  country 
we  find,  since  the  Union,  a  steady  degeneration  of  economic 
tissue.  Population  doubles  between  1800  and  1841,  but 
manufacture  decays.  The  cotton  workers  of  Belfast 
fall  in  number  within  that  period  from  27,000  to  12,000  ; 
and  the  factory  hands  of  Dublin  from  4,938  to  682.     The 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

consumption  of  luxuries,  an  excellent  test  of  wealth, 
shows  an  immediate  decline,  tobacco  falling  in  thirty  years 
by  37  per  cent,  and  wine  by  47  per  cent.  Loss  of  trade 
follows  loss  of  the  flag.  London,  having  become  the 
political  centre  of  gravity  of  Ireland,  tends  also  to  become 
her  financial  and  commercial  centre  of  gravity.  There  is 
a  diminution  of  the  productive,  and  a  great  increase  of 
the  parasitic  classes.  The  home  market  slips  away  from 
the  home  manufacturer  ;  a  sort  of  mania  of  exchange 
takes  possession  of  the  country  ;  and  she  ends  by  reaching 
a  higher  figure  per  unit  of  her  population  of  exports  and 
imports  than  any  other  European  nation,  paying  ruinous 
tribute  on  both  processes  to  the  Shy  locks  of  transit.  It 
is  a  situation  too  sadly  familiar  to  us  all.  M.  Paul- 
Dubois'  remedy,  too,  is  familiar  ;  it  is  the  programme  of 
the  men  of  1779  and  of  the  Industrial  Pioneers  of  to-day  : 
Use  at  home  as  many  as  you  need  of  the  things  that  are 
made  at  home,  and  make  at  home  as  many  as  possible 
of  the  things  that  are  used  at  home.  He  neither  anticipates 
nor  desires  any  notable  development  of  industry  on  the 
great  scale,  but  looks  for  the  prosperity  of  Ireland  to 
progressive  agriculture,  and  the  smaller  rural  industries 
that  come  naturally  to  cluster  around  it. 

Such  is,  in  bare  outline,  the  diagnosis  of  Ireland  made 
by  this  detached  and  sympathetic  student.  He  touches 
upon  many  other  subjects,  upon  that  of  Clericalism  and 
Anti-Clericalism  with  particular  delicacy  and  insight. 
One  may  regret  that,  with  his  French  experience,  he  does 
not  discuss  such  problems  as  that  now  rising  very 
definitely  on  the  political  horizon  :  Does  Ireland  stand  to 
gain  or  to  lose  by  Protection  ?  One  may  find  a  fault  of 
line  or  of  colour  here  and  there,  or  chance  on  an  irritating 
phrase.  But  on  the  whole  and  as  a  whole  this  is  the 
best  book  that  has  been  written    in   recent  years    on 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

the  problems  of  Ireland.  The  meaner  journalism  may  seek 
in  it  for  nothing  better  than  party  capital.  But  the 
worker  in  any  Irish  movement,  who  possesses  the  supreme 
wisdom  of  humility,  and  who  had  rather  be  bettered  than 
flattered,  will  be  glad  to  have  seen  himself  :in  M.  Paul- 
Dubois'  mirror.  His  last  message  is  one  of  hope.  He 
may,  as  his  Conclusion  shows,  have  underrated  the 
resolution  of  Ireland  to  secure  integral  Home  Rule — a 
National  Government  being  a  delicate  and  intricate 
machine  which  cannot  be  set  working  in  halves.  He  may, 
by  times,  have  seemed  to  forget  that  there  are  many 
kinds  of  Conciliation,  that,  for  instance,  an  infallible 
method  of  conciliating  a  tiger  is  to  allow  oneself  to  be 
devoured.  But,  as  between  us  and  our  rulers,  he  gives 
his  verdict,  on  the  evidence,  for  Ireland  and  against 
England.  And  he  foreshadows  a  possible  unification  of 
all  progressive  parties  on  the  Irish  side,  a  tacit  Concordat 
under  which,  on  the  sole  condition  that  the  national  idea 
be  not  submerged  or  the  national  flag  lowered  in 
surrender,  all  progressive  parties  would  come  to  regard 
themselves  as  but  different  regiments  of  the  same  Army 
of  Advance.     May  that  hope  come  true  ! 

T.  M.  Kettle. 


This  book  is  an  English  translation  of  L'Irlande  Contemporaire, 
Paris,  1907.  M.  Paul-Dubois  desires  to  express  his  gratitude  for 
great  personal  kindness  during  two  visits  to  Ireland,  and  invaluable 
help  in  his  studies  of  Irish  life  to  Mr.  T.  P.  Gill,  The  Rev.  F.  J. 
Hogan,  D.D.  and  the  authorities  of  Maynooth  College,  and  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett.  He  wishes  further  to  pay  a  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  that  brilliant  writer  on  Irish  affairs,  the  late  J.  F. 
Taylor,  K.C.,  and  to  say  bow  much  he  has  profited  by  the  counsel 
and  assistance  of  the  late  Rt.  Hon.  W.  E.  H.  Lecky. 

The  Editor  wishes  to  record  his  particular  indebtedness,  as 
regards  the  Historical  Introduction,  to  Mr.  A.  E.  Clery,  LL.B., 
and  as  regards  the  remainder  of  the  book  to  Mr.  J.  M.  Hone, 
and  Mr.  G.  F.  H.  Berkeley. 

It  has  been  thought  well  to  add  in  an  Appendix  a  few  Notes, 
mainly  of  a  statistical  character.  T.  M.  K. 


CONTENTS 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

Chapter  I. — Before  the  Union         ...  i 

I. — Early  Ireland.  II. — The  Invasions.  III. — 
The  Conquest  (1495-1603).  IV. — The  Conquest 
(1603-1691).  V. — The  Eighteenth  Century  : 
Penal  Laws.  VI. — The  Irish  Revolution  and 
the  Union  (1782-1800). 

Chapter  II. — Since  the  Union  ...        52 

I. — O'Connell.  II. — Young  Ireland  and  the 
Revolution  of  1848.  III. — The  Great  Famine 
and  Emigration.  IV. — Fenianism.  V. — 
Parnell. 


PART   ONE:    POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL 
CONDITIONS 

Chapter  I.— The  Two  Irelands  :    The  English 

Colony 89 

I.— The  Oligarchy.      IL— Ulster.      TIL— The 
Crisis  of  Unionism. 

Chapter  II. — The  Two  Irelands  :       National 

Ireland 117 

I. — Separatism     or      Physical     Force.         II. — 
Constitutional  Agitation.    III. —  Parliamentary 
Action.    IV. — Nationalist  Policy. 


xiv  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Chapter  III. — The  National  and  Anti-English 

Spirit 151 

I.— The  Individual.  II.— The  Effect  of  the 
Past.  III. — Public  Life  and  Public  Opinion. 
IV. — Anti-English  Feeling.  V. — Irishmen  and 
France. 

Chapter  IV. — The  Government  .        .        .       183 

I. — The  Regime  of  the  Conquest.  II. — The 
Castle.  III. — Local  Administration.  IV. — 
The  Police.  V. — Justice  :  The  Lower  Courts. 
VI. — The  Judges  of  the  Superior  Courts. 
VII. — Jury-Packing. 


PART  TWO  :  MATERIAL  DECADENCE. 

Chapter  I. — The  Land  Question       .        .        .      218 

I. — Historical.  II. — General  Data  of  the 
Problem.  III. — General  Data  of  the  Problem 
(contd.).  IV.— The  Act  of  1870.  V.— The 
Legislation  of  1881.  VI. — The  Complaints  of 
the  Landlords.  VII. — The  Practical  Results 
of  the  Gladstonian  Legislation. 

Chapter  II. — The  Land  Question — (Continued)       269 

I. — Land  Purchase  :  First  Attempts.  II. — 
Resists  and  Criticisms.  III. — The  Land  Act 
of  1903.    IV. — The  Results  of  the  Act  of  1903. 

Chapter  III. — The  Western  Problem       .        .       296 

I. — The  Situation.  II. — Life  in  the  West. 
III. — The  Remedy. 

Chapter    IV. — The    Economic    and    Financial 

Situation  319 

I. — Nature  and  History.  II. — The  Industrial 
Situation.  III. — Over-Taxation.  IV. — 

Emigration.     V. — The  Final  Phase  of  Decay. 


CONTENTS  xv 

PART    THREE  :    POSSIBILITIES    OF 
REGENERATION. 

PAGE 

Chapter  I. — The  Education  Question       .        .      367 

Chapter  II. — The  Gaelic  Movement  .        .      390 

I. — Anglicisation.  II. — The  Gaelic  League. 
III.  —  Anti-Celticism.  IV. — The  Literary- 
Awakening  V. — Social  Results.  VI. — Sum- 
mary. 

Chapter  III. — Economic  Reform        .        .        .      440 

I. — The  Evil  and  the  Remedy.  II. — Self-help 
and  Co-operation.  III. — Technical  Instruc- 
tion.    IV. — Summary. 

Chapter  IV. — The  Religious  Question     .        .      461 

I. — The  Churches  in  Ireland  II. — The 
Church  of  Ireland  and  the  Disestablish- 
ment. III. — Catholicism.  IV. — The  Nine- 
teenth Century.  V. — The  Power  of  the 
Clergy  :  its  Cause.  VI. — The  Results. 
VII. — The   Future  :    Anti-Clericalism. 

Conclusion 512 

Appendix  :  Editor's  Notes         ....      523 

Index  531 


HISTORICAL     INTRODUCTION 


CHAPTER  I.— BEFORE  THE  UNION 

We  must  look  to  the  past  if  we  would  understand  the 
present.  Hence,  before  we  approach  the  study  of  con- 
temporary Ireland,  it  is  well  to  turn  our  gaze  backwards 
and  try  to  comprehend  the  broader  facts  of  the  history 
of  that  country.  We  must  look  to  the  historical  causes 
of  which  the  existing  condition  of  affairs  is  the  immediate 
outcome.  When  we  do  so,  two  questions  at  once  suggest 
themselves.  How  comes  it  that  though  it  has  been  so 
often  crushed,  the  Irish  nation  still  survives  ;  and  yet. 
though  able  to  survive,  has  never  been  able  to  attain  its 
freedom  ?  And  again,  how  is  it  that  the  English,  a 
people  long  famous  for  liberal  principles  and  practical 
common  sense,  have  failed  so  miserably  in  the  task  of 
conciliating  Ireland  ?  Why  have  their  efforts  in  Ireland 
borne  no  other  crop  than  one  of  unprofitable  hatred,  with 
the  result  that  after  seven  centuries  and  a  half,  that 
country  is  to-day  an  element  of  disintegration,  and  a 
dead  weight  in  the  British  Empire  ?  What,  in  a  word, 
has  caused — -to  employ  a  strong  term — the  bankruptcy 
of  English  rule  in  Ireland  ? 

It  is  difficult  to  give  even  a  brief  sketch  of  the  history 
of  Ireland.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  Irish  history 
is  a  book  but  half  open.  Students  of  Celtic  and 
archaeologists  are  still  engaged  in  preparing  the  way  for 
the  historian.  Many  Irish  Manuscripts,  records  and  state 
papers  dealing  with  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  as  well  as  with  earlier  epochs,  have  not  yet  seen 

u 


2  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

the  light.1  These  alone  could  afford  us  accurate  informa- 
tion not  only  as  to  the  social  conditions,  but  as  to  some  of 
the  most  important  public  events  in  those  periods.  It  is 
partly  on  this  account,  though  the  fact  is  also  in  large 
part  due  to  the  passions  and  prejudices  of  the  two  nations, 
that  on  the  ever-burning  question  of  Irish  history, 
Englishmen  and  Irishmen  put  forward  two  widely  different 
views.  The  two  positions  are  diametrically  opposed 
and  each  is  tainted  with  extravagance. 

In  the  view  of  Englishmen,  the  history  of  Ireland  is 
that  of  a  backward  people  engaged  in  a  stupid  revolt 
against  the  genius  of  English  civilisation,  and  all 
the  sacrifices  which  the  English  in  their  generosity  make 
for  the  development  of  "  that  part  of  the  United  King- 
dom "  meet  with  no  better  return  than  crime,  violence  and 
ingratitude.  Irish  history  is  the  story  of  a  barbarous 
people,  incapable  either  of  understanding  or  accepting  the 
"  lustre  of  English  liberty,"  as  Cromwell  put  it  in  his 

1  See  on  the  history  of  Ireland  the  following  general  works  : — G. 
Keating  (i  570-1640),  History  of  Ireland  (Irish  Texts  Society  edition. 
Campion,  History  of  Ireland  (published  in  1633  by  Sir  John  Ware). 
Cox,  Hibemia  Anglicana,  1689.  MacGeoghegan,  Histoire  d'Irlande, 
Paris,  1758-1763.  Leland,  History  of  Ire/and,  1773.  Plowden,  An 
Historical  Review  of  the  State  of  Ireland  from  the  Invasion  to  the  Union, 
1803.  Hallam,  Constitutional  History  of  England,  1827.  Thomas 
Moore,  Memoirs  of  Captain  Rock,  1824.  Daniel  O'Connell,  A  Memoir 
of  Ireland,  Native  and  Saxon,  1843.  Fronde,  History  of  England,  London, 
1856-1870.  Goldwin  Smith,  Irish  History  and  Character,  Oxford  and 
London,  1861.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  The  Story  of  Ireland,  Dublin,  1867, 
John  Mitchel,  History  of  Ireland,  from  the  treaty  of  Limerick,  New  York, 
1868.  Stuart  Mill,  England  and  Ireland,  London,  1868.  Froude. 
The  English  in  Ireland  in  the  iSth  Century,  London,  1872.  W.  H. 
Lecky,  History  of  England  in  the  18th  Century,  London,  1883.  Richey. 
A  Short  History  of  the  Irish  People,  Dublin,  1887.  W.  A.  O'Connor, 
History  of  the  Irish  People,  Manchester,  1884.  Emily  Lawless,  Ireland, 
London,  1887.  Ball,  Historical  Review  of  the  Legislative  Systems 
operative  in  Ireland,  London,  1883.  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History, 
with  an  Introduction  by  J.  Bryce,  London,  1888.  Duke  of  Argyll,  Irish 
Nationalism,  London,  1893.  W.  O'Connor  Morris,  Ireland,  1494-1868, 
Cambridge,  1898.  T.  D.  Ingram,  A  Critical  Examination  of  Irish 
History,  London,  1900.  J.  P.  Gannon,  A  Review  of  Irish  History, 
London,  1900.  Rev.  E.  A.  W Alton,  History  of  Ireland,  Vol.  L,  Dublin 
1903,  and  Vol.  II,   1906. 

Cf.  G.  de  Beaumont,  l'Irlande  sociale,  politique  et  religieuse,  4th 
édition,  Paris,  1840.  Cardinal  Perraud,  Etudes  sur  l'Irlande  contem- 
poraine, Paris,  1862.  J.  Flach,  Considérations  sur  l'histoire  politique 
de  l'Irlande,  Paris,  1885. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  3 

proclamation  in  1649.  The  true  explanation  of  what  has 
happened  is  to  be  found  in  the  essential  weakness  of  Irish 
character,  which  has  been  found  wanting,  when  put  to  the 
trial  in  the  struggle  for  life.  English  misdeeds,  if  such  there 
ever  were,  have  been  repaired  long  ago.  And  when 
prescription  has  been  running  its  course  for  a  century  it 
is  criminal  to  re-open  the  case  and  stir  up  slumbering 
passions  by  recalling  forgotten  wrongs.  Hence  Irish 
history  is  a  subject  to  which  Englishmen  do  not  like  to 
turn  their  minds.  No  good,  say  they,  can  come  of  it.  It  is 
not  a  matter  worthy  of  scientific  study.2  As  a  result,  not 
only  is  Irish  history  not  taught  to  English  children,  but 
it  was  not  until  recently  even  allowed  to  be  taught  in 
the  National  Schools  of  Ireland. 

The  attitude  of  Irishmen  upon  this  matter  is  exactly 
the  opposite.  To  them  Irish  history  is  their  consolation  ; 
their  greatest  hope  ;  it  is  always  before  their  eyes,  always 
upon  their  lips.  They  live  in  the  past.  Everything 
around  them  speaks  of  other  days.  Round  towers,  ruins, 
fallen  abbeys,  ancient  castles,  nay,  the  very  desolation 
of  the  country  itself,  bring  memories  of  times  gone  by. 
England  sees  in  the  faults  and  vices  of  Irishmen  the  true 
explanation  of  their  misfortunes  ;  Ireland  deems  the 
cruelty  and  tyranny  of  the  English  to  be  the  real  and 
only  cause  of  her  unhappiness.  As  Englishmen  brazenly 
shut  their  eyes  to  their  national  misdeeds,  so  Irishmen 
complacently  shut  their  eyes  to  their  own  shortcomings, 
and  never  weary  of  looking  back  upon  that  golden  age  of 
Erin,  when,  whilst  England  was  yet  steeped  in  pagan 
barbarism,  the  Irish  were  the  protectors  and  the 
pioneers  of  western  civilisation. 

In  considering  the  circumstances  of  Ireland,  the  influence 

2  "  Ireland  has  never  realised  that  unity  and  continuity  of  national 
life  which  alone  can  furnish  a  worthy  theme  for  history  "  (George  C. 
Broderick,  Political  Studies,  London,  1879,  with  reference  to  Froude's 
work,  The  English  in  Ireland)  Cf.  page  354  :  "It  is  time  for  us  to  have 
done  with  fanciful  and  allegorical  pictures  of  Ireland  as  a  forlorn 
maiden,  brooding  helplessly  over  her  bygone  wrongs,  pointing  out  the 
wounds  that  are  now  finally  healed,  and  clanking  the  chains  that  have 
been  struck  off  for  ever." 


4  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

exercised  by  its  geographical  position  is  an  all-important 
fact.  If  we  take  them  singly  we  can  find  a  parallel 
elsewhere,  for  each  one  of  the  evils  under  which  Ireland 
has  suffered.  The  soil  of  Ireland  is  not  less  fertile  than 
that  of  Holland.  It  is  not  more  bloodstained  than  that 
of  Flanders.  Distinctions  of  race  are  not  sharper  in 
Ireland  than  in  Switzerland.  And  whilst  religious 
persecutions  have  in  Ireland  been  carried  out  with  dire 
cruelty,  yet  the  country  remains  Catholic  to-day  in  spite 
of  them.  But  what  makes  the  case  of  Ireland  worse  than 
that  of  any  other  country,  even  Poland,  is  the  fact  that 
all  these  evils  have  afflicted  her  simultaneously,  and  have 
continued  to  do  so,  without  intermission,  for  seven 
centuries.  For  this  result  the  geographical  position  of 
the  country  must  be  held  in  a  great  measure  responsible. 
It  lies  far  away  by  itself  to  the  extreme  west  of  Europe, 
with  Britain,  as  it  were,  for  its  prison  wall.  Thus,  the 
interposition  of  England  cuts  off  Ireland  from  the  current 
of  European  civilisation  and  intercepts  all  commerce, 
whether  spiritual  or  material,  with  other  countries.  '  You 
have  always  been  like  a  high  garden  wall  standing  between 
us  and  the  sun,"  said  George  Canning's  daughter,  Lady 
Clanricarde,  to  an  Englishman.  If  England  has  all  the 
advantages  of  an  insular  position,  Ireland  has  all  the 
disadvantages.  It  need  only  be  added  that  its  proximity 
to  England  prevents  the  English  people,  in  the  interests 
of  their  own  peace,  from  ever  leaving  Ireland  out  of 
account.  It  was  then  in  the  nature  of  things  that  of 
these  two  sister  countries  with  interests  sharply  opposed, 
the  larger  island  should  exercise  a  preponderating  influence 
upon  the  smaller. 

I. — Early  Ireland. 

One  result  of  Ireland's  isolated  position  in  early  times  was 
that  Caesar's  legionaries  never  set  foot  in  the  country.  Later 
on,  indeed,  Ireland  came  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  under 
the  influence  of  Roman  literature  ;  but  Roman  law  never 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  5 

laid  its  enduring  mark  upon  the  Country.  Had  it  been 
otherwise,  her  history  must  have  been  far  different. 
Being  outside  the  ambit  of  Roman  civilisation,  Ireland 
developed  from  within  upon  her  own  lines.  And  it  was 
at  once  her  good  and  her  evil  fortune  that  she  thus 
retained  her  distinctively  "  Celtic  "  character  entirely 
unimpaired. 

The  early  history  of  Ireland,  as  we  find  it  in  the  annals 
and  mythological  poems,  gives  us  a  picture  of  diverse 
peoples  combating  and  succeeding  one  another — sons  of 
Partholan  or  of  Nemedh,  Tuatha-de-Danann,  "  Fomor- 
ians  "  and  Firbolgs.  But  from  a  time  immediately 
preceding  the  Christian  era,  the  "  Celts,"  together  with  a 
certain  intermingling  of  aborigines,  are  found  in  possession 
of  the  island.  These  were  the  Gaels,3  who  belonged  to 
that  great  Celtic  race,  that  had  once  been  masters  of  all 
Europe,  but  had  been  gradually  driven  back  by  the 
advance  of  Roman  power  and  by  Germanic  incursions. 
According  to  legend  these  Gaels  were  the  descendants 
of  Miledh  or  Milesius,  who  had  crossed  over  from  Spain  a 
thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era.  We  learn  from 
the  same  source  that  not  less  than  one  hundred  and  fifty 
kings  of  Milesian  stock  reigned  over  Ireland.  This  much  is 
certain,  at  any  rate,  that  in  the  first  centuries  of  our  era, 
there  existed  in  Ireland  a  civilisation  that  had  reached  an 
advanced  stage  of  development.  To  the  study  of  this 
civilisation  the  ablest  students  of  Celtic  archaeology  and 
Celtic  philology  have  been  devoting  their  researches  for 
half  a  century. 4 

3  According  to  another  theory  (the  most  probable  one),  the  Gaels 
belonged  to  the  Nordic  or  Teutonic  race.  It  has  also  been  maintained 
that  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people  are  of  Iberian  or  Scythian  stock, 
and  that  the  Gaels  only  mingled  with  this  earlier  population  and 
imposed  their  language  upon  them. 

4  We  can  only  send  the  reader  first  of  all  to  the  works  of  the 
uncontested  master  of  Celtic  studies,  M.  d'Arbois  de  Jubainville,  then 
to  those  of  MM.  Gaidoz,  Loth,  Ernault,  Dottin,  etc.  Cf.  O'Curry, 
Ancient  Irish  History,  Dublin,  1S61  ;  Manners  and  Customs  of  the 
Ancient  Irish  (edited  by  W.  R.  Sullivan,  Dublin,  1873).  H.  S.  Maine, 
Ancient  Law,  London,  1861  ;  Early  History  of  Institutions,  London, 
1875  ;    Early  Law  and  Customs,   London,    1883.      Zimmer,   Keltische 


6  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

The  most  striking  characteristic  of  this  society  was  its 
tribal  organisation.  The  social  cell,  standing  next  in 
order  above  the  family,  was  the  tribe,  which  consisted  of 
a  group  of  families,  a  body  of  freemen  connected  by  a 
real  or  imaginary  tie  of  kinship,  who  bore  the  same  name, 
hYed  together  in  a  denned  portion  of  territory,  and 
owned  a  certain  number  of  serfs  and  slaves.  These  com- 
munities were  rural,  for  there  were  no  towns.  The  land 
belonged  to  the  tribe  ;  part  of  it  was  grazed  in  common, 
and  the  rest  allotted  from  time  to  time  between  the  free 
men.  Yet  private  property  was  not  unknown.  It 
existed  in  regard  to  cattle,  which  were  then  the  chief 
wealth,  and  even  in  regard  to  land.  The  chief  had  a 
private  demesne  appertaining  to  his  office,  which  he 
farmed  out  to  tenants,  who  paid  him  rent  in  kind.  The 
chieftaincy  was  elective,  but  was  confined  to  a  single 
ruling  family.  In  matters  of  politics,  the  "  tribe  "  was 
of  less  importance  than  the  "  clan,"  or  group  of  tribes, 
and  the  clans  themselves  were  grouped  into  the  five 
provinces5  or  kingdoms,  which  were  subject  at  least  in 
name  to  the  Ard-Righ,  or  High  King  of  Ireland.  The 
High  King,  however,  like  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor  of 
the  middle  ages,  had  little  real  authority,  for  he  had  neither 
civil  jurisdiction  nor  military  power.  But  he  had  a  royal 
residence,  the  famous  palace  of  Tara  ;  and  there  in  a  sort 
of  Agora,  were  held  the  triennial  festival  and  games  of 
the  Feis. 

Wars  were  carried  on  unceasingly,  now  between  tribe 
and  tribe,  now  between  kingdom  and  kingdom.  Yet 
again  there  were  revolts  against  the  authority  of  the 
Ard-Righ.  In  the  end  the  position  of  Ard-Righ  came  to 
belong  exclusively  to  the  powerful  family  of  the  Hy-Niall, 

Studio,  Berlin,  1 881-1884.  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Healy,  Bishop  of  Clonfert, 
Ireland's  Ancient  Schools  and  Scholars,  Dublin,  1892.  Sophie  Bryant, 
Celtic  Ireland,  London,  1889.  Eleanor  Hull,  Pagan  Ireland,  and  Early 
Christian  Ireland,  London  and  Dublin,  1904  and  1905.  Lady  Ferguson, 
The  Irish  Before  the  Conquest,  London,  1868.  Douglas  Hyde,  A 
Literary  History  of  Ireland,  London,  1903. 

5  Ulster,  Connacht,  Munster,  Leinster  and  Meath. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  7 

or  O'Neills.  From  time  to  time  monarchs  oi  exceptional 
capacity,  such  as  Conn  of  the  Hundred  Battles,6  Cormac 
mac  Art,7  and  Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages,8  succeeded  in 
making  this  authority  a  reality.  In  the  seventh  century 
Scotland  was  conquered  by  the  Irish  Gaels,  and  for  many 
years  afterwards  they  continued  to  invade  Britain,  and 
even  extended  their  incursions  upon  the  continent  to  the 
foot  of  the  Alps. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  historical  period  the  social 
condition  of  Ireland  seems  to  have  been  already  tending 
towards  decay.  Yet  we  have  abundant  evidence  of  the 
high  degree  of  perfection  which  its  civilisation  had  already 
attained.  First,  there  are  the  laws  or  customs  which  the 
Judges,  called  Brehons,  collected  and  interpreted.  In 
them,  as  we  may  see  from  the  Seanchus  Mor,  the  subtlety 
and  imaginative  fertility  of  the  Celtic  spirit  gave  itself  free 
play.  Then,  the  delicate  craftsmanship  and  purity  of 
taste  displayed  in  early  Celtic  ornaments  is  well  known. 
From  the  Pagan  period  we  have  torques,  brooches, 
gorgets  and  combs,  with  their  strange  and  characteristic 
spiral  ornamentation.  Not  inferior  to  them  in  beauty 
and  chastity  of  design  are  those  marvellous  examples  of 
Christian  art,  the  Tara  Brooch,  the  Ardagh  Chalice,  the 
Cross  of  Cong,  and  St.  Patrick's  Crozier,  not  to  speak  of 
the  wonderful  illuminations  of  the  Book  of  Kells  and 
other  manuscripts.  But  it  was  in  its  literature  that  early 
Ireland  showed  its  greatest  intellectual  power.  As  they 
have  come  down  to  us  for  the  most  part  in  manuscripts 
of  late  date  the  epic  poems  and  legends,  the  sagas  of  the 
pagan  period,  and  of  the  mythological,  the  heroic  and  the 
Ossianic  cycles,  9  are  not  less  valuable  from  a  literary  than 

6  123-157  A.D. 

7  227-266  A.D. 

8  379-405.  In  his  reign  the  future  St.  Patrick  was  borne  into  slavery 
in  Ireland.  His  successor,  Dathi  (405-42S),  was  the  last  pagan  king 
of  Ireland. 

9  Of  the  extent  of  this  literature,  still  in  existence,  O'Curry  says  that 
the  historical  stories  would  occupy  4,000  pages,  the  stories  and  poems 
of  the  Ossianic  (or  Fenian)  cycle  3,000,  and  the  other  tales  and  stories 
5,000.  As  to  Irish  music  see  A.  H.  Grattan-Flood,  A  History  of  Irish 
Music.  Dublin,  1905. 


8  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

from  a  philological  and  archaeological  point  of  view. 
Thev  comprise  both  prose  and  verse,  stories  and  poems, 
history  and  fiction.  In  them  are  found  mingled  primitive 
rudeness  and  exquisite  delicacy,  an  oriental  imaginative- 
ness and  a  strong  common  sense.  Exhibiting  as  they  do 
a  combination  of  freshness  of  feeling,  delicacy  of  sentiment, 
and  at  the  same  time  perfect  naturalness,  these  literary 
remains  have  proved  an  inspiration  to  the  greatest  modern 
poets,  to  Tennyson  and  Swinburne  for  instance,  in  our 
own  time.  It  was  from  Ireland  that  Europe  received 
her  first  love-songs.  It  was  the  Irish  who  invented  rhyme, 
in  all  its  varied  forms,  single  or  double,  final,  initial  or 
medial,  including  the  most  elaborate  assonances  and 
alliterations.  The  Ossianic  poems  exhibit,  under  an 
extraordinary  perfection  of  form,  all  the  subtle  rhythms 
and  lyrical  harmonies  of  vers  libre.  And  it  is  re- 
markable that  we  never  find  in  the  bardic  literature  that 
exuberance  of  diction  and  exaggeration  ot  form  that 
often  grates  upon  us  in  the  later  epics.  They  show,  on 
the  contrary,  as  we  are  told  by  Dr.  Sigerson,  "  classic 
reserve  in  thought,  form  and  expression."  It  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say,  with  this  learned  Irishman,10  that 
the  literary  sceptre,  once  wielded  by  Rome,  fell  in  later 
times  to  Celtic  Ireland. 

The  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Ireland  must  next 
occupy  our  attention.  If  we  may  believe  tradition,  a 
Celt  from  Gaul,  named  Patricius  or  Succat,  had  been 
brought  captive  to  Ireland  by  the  Ard-Righ,  Niall  of  the 
Nine  Hostages,  but  had  escaped  and  been  educated  on 
the  continent.  Thence,  in  the  year  432,  he  was  sent  as 
Bishop  to  convert  Ireland.  Where  a  former  missionary 
named  Palladius  had  failed,  Patricius  succeeded  miracu- 
lously, and  under  the  name  of  Saint  Patrick,  he  is 
venerated  to  the  present  day  as  ';  the  Apostle  of  Ireland." 
It  is  difficult  in  these  matters  to  distinguish  history  from 

10  George  Sigerson,  Bards  of  the  Gael  and  Gall,  which  contains 
admirable  translations  into  English  of  early  Celtic  poetry. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  9 

legend.11  It  seems  probable  that  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fifth  century  Ireland  was  already  in  part  converted  ro 
Christianity.  Missionaries,  captors,  and  traders  from 
Britain,  had  brought  about  this  result.  There  may  even 
have  been  Irish  bishops  before  St.  Patrick.  It  is  clear, 
at  any  rate,  that  the  ancient  paganism  was  already  in  its 
decline,  and  lacked  the  power  to  resist  the  new  spirit. 
Ireland  became  Christian  without  a  struggle,  and  soon 
earned  the  name  of  ;;  The  Island  of  Saints  and  Doctors." 
The  organisation  of  the  Christian  Church  in  Ireland 
proceeded  more  or  less  upon  monastic  lines,  modified  by 
the  clan  s}7stem.  Churches  and  monasteries  sprang  up 
throughout  the  country,  whose  abbots  being,  like  the 
chiefs  of  clans,  each  independent  of  the  other,  possessed 
far  greater  power  than  the  bishops.  These  latter  were, 
in  fact,  not  uncommonly  ordinary  monks,  subject  to  the 
control  of  the  abbots.  Rome  being  far  away,  forms 
peculiar  to  the  country  naturally  came  into  being  in 
ecclesiastical  ritual  and  practice.  Such  were  the  costume 
of  the  priests,  the  shape  of  the  tonsure,  and  the  date  for 
the  observance  of  Easter.  They  may  be  compared  to 
those  which  certain  Eastern  Churches  are  permitted  to 
employ  in  our  own  time.  Some  of  them  continued  in  use 
for  many  centuries.12  The  Gaelic  Church  of  Ireland  is, 
therefore,  from  the  very  beginning  to  be  distinguished 
from  both  the  Gallo-Roman  and  the  Anglo-Saxon 
Churches.       The    wide    extension   of     literary    culture, 

11  As  to  the  Patrician  Question  see  among  recent  worksVH.  Zimmer. 
The  Celtic  Church  in  Britain  and  Ireland,  London,  1902  (an  English 
translation  from  the  German  text).  Zimmer's  thesis  is  that  Succat, 
Patrick,  and  Palladius  are  the  same  person,  who  was  sent  by  Pope 
Celestine,  not  to  convert  the  country,  since  it  was  already  Christian, 
but  to  assure  its  obedience  to  Rome  and  to  crush  the  nascent  heresy 
of  Pelagianism.      His  mission  was  a  failure. 

12  On  the  primitive  church  in  Ireland,  see  Professor  George  Stokes, 
Ireland  and  the  Celtic  Church,  London,  1886.  H.  Zimmer,  The,  Celtic 
Church  in  Britain  and  Ireland,  London,  1902  ;  Pelaçius  in  Ireland, 
Berlin,  1901.  Moran.  Early  Irish  Church.  Dublin,  1864.  Mgr.  Healy, 
Ireland's  Ancient  Schools  and  Scholars,  Dublin,  1892.  Eleanor  Hull, 
Early  Christian  Ireland.  Dublin,  1905.  Ozanam.  La  Civilisation 
chrétienne  au  cinquième  siècle  (Paris,  1862-1S65).  Montaiembert,  Les 
Moines  Occident,  Paris,  i860- 1867.  John  Healy,  The  Ancient  Irish 
Church,  London,  1892. 


io  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

together  with  the  missionary  enthusiasm  which  character- 
ised the  religious  movement  in  Ireland,  place  the  Irish 
Church  far  in  advance  of  either  of  those  just  mentioned. 
Schools  were  started  everywhere  for  the  teaching  of 
Literature  and  Science,  Latin  and  Greek,  Philosophy  and 
Theology.  Libraries  were  erected  on  all  sides,  where 
scholars  received  books  and  food  free  of  cost.  Students 
came  in  pursuit  of  learning  from  all  parts  of  Europe  to 
the  schools  at  Clonfert,  Lismore,  Bangor  and  Durrow. 
Seven  hundred  attended  the  school  at  Armagh,  which  had 
been  founded  by  St.  Patrick  himself.  Alcuin  was  trained 
at  the  University  of  Clonmacnoise,  the  deserted  ruins  of 
which  still  stand  upon  the  banks  of  the  Shannon. 
Sedulius,  in  the  fifth  century,  founded  with  his  Carmen 
Paschale  a  school  of  Latin  poetry  in  Ireland.  Aileran,  in 
the  sixth,  knew  Hebrew,  and  cites  Origen  and  Philo  in  a 
treatise  on  the  mystical  significance  of  the  names  in  the 
genealogy  of  Christ.  St.  Vergil  (Fergal),  an  Irish  Bishop 
of  Salzburg,  maintained,  in  the  year  745,  the  rotundity  of 
the  earth  and  the  existence  of  the  antipodes,  a  doctrine 
for  which  indeed  he  incurred  condemnation.  Dicuil,  the 
Geographer,  examines  and  criticises  all  the  ancient 
authorities  in  his  work,  De  Mensura  Orbis  Terrarum, 
published  in  825  A.D.  This  book  contains  an  account  of 
Ireland.  From  the  fifth  to  the  eighth  century  Ireland 
was  the  refuge  and  the  home  of  modern  culture,  and  may 
truly  be  said  to  have  saved  European  civilisation  in  the 
days  of  the  barbarian  incursions.^ 

But  she  did  more.  From  the  sixth  to  the  eighth  century 
the  Irish  were  the  apostles  of  Europe  and  continued  to 
send    missionaries    unceasingly    throughout    the    whole 

'3  In  665  A.D.  the  Irish  monk  Augustin  wrote  a  treatise  on  the 
wonders  of  the  Gospel  which  was  long  attributed  to  the  Bishop  of 
Hippo.  Cummian,  Bishop  of  Clonfert,  shows  high  scientific  and 
canonical  attainments  in  his  Epistle  on  the  Paschal  Question  (seventh 
century).  Sedulius,  Abbot  of  Kildare  (not  to  be  confounded  with  the 
author  of  the  Carmen  Paschale),  wrote  a  treatise  on  Grammar,  a  treatise 
on  government,  and  many  Latin  poems,  about  the  year  820.  Dungal 
explained  astronomy  to  Charlemagne  in  a  treatise  De  Duplici  Solis 
Ecir'psi. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  n 

continent.  Irish  monks  travelled  from  the  Hebrides  in 
the  West,  far  into  Germany  in  the  East,  and  as  far  South 
as  the  Apennines  ;  they  built  churches,  recalled  the  people 
to  their  religious  allegiance,  and  restored  Christianity, 
which,  since  the  decay  of  Roman  power,  seemed  on  the 
point  of  being  extinguished  by  the  Lombard  and  the 
Visigoth.  St.  Columba  (or  Columcille)  (521-597)  founded 
the  celebrated  monastery  of  Iona,  and  converted  the  Picts. 
St.  Columban  travelled  through  Gaul  and  founded 
monasteries  from  Nantes  on  one  side  to  the  Vosges  on 
the  other.  He  founded  Luxeuil,  Fontaines,  Annegray, 
and  passing  through  Switzerland,  crossed  the  Alps, 
and  built  the  abbey  of  Bobbio  in  Lombardy,  where  he 
ended  his  days  in  the  year  615.  His  disciple,  St.  Gall, 
established  a  monastery  near  the  lake  of  Constance,  on 
the  site  of  the  town  that  still  bears  his  name.  Saint 
Killian  converted  Franconia  and  Thuringia  and  was 
martyred  at  Wurzburg  in  the  year  689.  Charlemagne 
surrounded  himself  with  Irish  monks  at  Aix-la-Chapelle. 
Charles  the  Bold  brought  Scotus  Erigena,  the  founder  of 
scholastic  philosophy,  to  Paris.  In  the  seventh  century, 
Ireland  gave  two  bishops  to  Strasburg,  without  counting 
St.  Fridolin,  the  first  bishop  of  Alsace,  in  the  sixth.  St. 
Frigidian  (or  San  Frediano),  Bishop  of  Lucca,  in  the  sixth 
century,  who  converted  the  Lombards,  was  an  Irishman. 
And  in  the  ninth  century  the  first  bishop  of  Fiesole  was 
St.  Donatus,  a  native  of  the  same  country.     "  For  a  time 

it  seemed  as  if Celtic  and  not  Latin  Christianity 

was  to  mould  the  destinies  of  the  Churches  of  the  West  .  ." 
says  the  English  historian,  J.  R.  Green.1 4 

II. — The   Invasions.1 

Such  were  the  glorious  beginnings  of  Irish  history,  Pagan 
and  Christian,  the  splendid  prelude  that  was  to  have  so 

*4  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  p.  21.  This  missionary  activity 
explains  why  we  find  to-day  so  many  valuable  Irish  MSS.  in  continental 
libraries  at  Paris,  Basle,  Koln,  Vienna,  Milan,  etc. 

1  On  this  period   (ninth  to  the  fifteenth  century)  see,   besides  the 


12  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

mournful  and  terrible  a  sequel.  The  first  blow  struck 
against  Irish  cvilisation  came  from  the  invasions  of  the 
Northmen  at  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  century.  The 
Danes  (as  the  Irish  historians  styled  them)  first  occupied 
the  sea-board.  They  founded  towns — -a  species  of 
community  hitherto  unknown  in  Ireland.  They  pierced 
their  way  into  the  interior,  destroyed  schools,  and 
plundered  churches  and  monasteries.  The  whole  of  Ireland 
soon  fell  under  the  sway  of  the  Vikings.  Manuscripts 
were  burnt.  Science  perished,  and  morals  were  debased, 
even  in  the  church  itself.  Yet  the  Gaels  gradually 
regained  their  position,  and  at  the  end  of  the  tenth 
century,  King  Malachy  inflicted  upon  the  "  Danes  "  their 
first  important  reverse.  At  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh 
Brian  Boroimhe  (Boru),  who  had  wrested  the  supreme 
power  from  the  Hy-Niall,  routed  the  Danes  decisively  at 
Clontarf  on  Good  Friday,  in  the  year  1014.  On  that 
glorious  field,  however,  King  Brian,  his  son  and  his 
grandson,  perished  together.  Both  King  Brian,  the 
Alfred  of  Ireland,  and  his  predecessor,  King  Malachy,  had 
done  much  to  revive  culture,  and,  as  soon  as  Danish 
power  was  broken,  literature  and  the  arts  regained  their 
former  position.  Kenneth  O'Hartigan  (circ.  975),  O'Flynn 
and  MacLiag  were  the  precursors  of  the  renaissance. 
Scribes  and  annalists  like  Tighearnach  (circ.  1088)  resumed 
their  labours.  Everything  that  could  be  found  of  the 
older  writings  was  brought  together  in  books  such  as  those 
two  books,  "  The  Book  of  Leinster  "  (twelfth  century) 
and  the  Leabhar  na  h-Uidhre,  the  work  of  the  scribe 
Maelmuire  (circ.  1106),  which  are  the  most  ancient  among 
the  famous  manuscripts  of  Ireland.  The  Gospels  were 
written  down  in  the  "  Book  of  Durrow,"  the  "  Book  of 
Armagh,"  and  many  others,  that  have  come  down  to  us 
from  the  same  period.     Ireland  once  again  began  to  send 

works  already  mentioned,  Topography  and  History  of  the  English 
Conquest  of  Ireland,  edited  by  F.  J.  Furnivall,  London,  1896  (see 
I'Expugnatio  Hibernica).  Sir  John  Davies,  Discovery  of  the  True  Causes 
why  Ireland  was  never  subdued,  161 2  (published  in  1786  in  a  collection 
of  Historical  Tracts).      Calendar  of  State  Papers. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  13 

missionaries  to  the  continent.  Marianus  founded  the 
monastery  of  Ratisbon,  and  Irish  monks  penetrated  even 
into  Hungary  and  Poland.  There  was  a  revival,  an  echo 
of  the  golden  age  of  Ireland.  But  unhappily  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  invasions  were  soon  to  come  upon  her  and  put  an 
end  to  all  such  hopes. 

Had  Ireland  been  left  to  herself  she  would,  in  all  human 
probability,  have  succeeded,  notwithstanding  her 
decadence,  in  establishing  political  unity  under  a  military 
chief.2  Had  the  country  been  brought  into  peaceful 
contact  with  continental  civilisation,  it  must  have 
advanced  along  the  path  of  modern  progress.  Even  if  it 
had  been  conquered  by  a  powerful  nation,  it  would  at 
least  have  participated  in  the  progress  of  the  conquering 
power.  But  none  of  these  things  happened.  England, 
whose  political  and  social  development  had  been  hastened 
by  the  Norman  Conquest,  desired  to  extend  her  influence 
to  Ireland.  She  wished,  as  Froude  strangely  tells  us,  "  to 
complete  the  work  of  civilisation  happily  begun  by  the 
Danes."  But  in  actual  fact,  she  only  succeeded  in 
trammeling  the  development  of  Irish  society,  and  maintain- 
ing in  the  country  an  appalling  condition  of  decadent 
stagnation,  as  the  result  of  three  centuries  and  a  half 
of  intermittent  invasions,  never  followed  by  conquest. 

The  first  Anglo-Norman  expedition  penetrated  into 
Ireland  in  the  year  1169.  It  was  a  private  adventure 
led  by  Richard,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  surnamed  "  Strong- 
bow,"  who  had  been  invited  by  Dermot  Mac  Murrough, 
King  of  Leinster,  to  aid  him  in  a  war  against  Roderick 
O'Connor,  the  Ard-Righ  of  Ireland.  Some  months 
afterwards  King  Henry  II.  of  England  crossed 
over  in  person,  fortified  with  the  celebrated  Bull  containing 
the  grant  of  Ireland,  a  document,  to  put  the  case  at  its 
weakest,  of  doubtful  authenticity.  He  spent  Christmas 
in  Dublin,  and  had  himself  recognised  as  over-lord  of 
Ireland,   placing  this  new  title   after  those  of  Duke  of 

2  Cf.  H.  S.  Maine,  Early  History  of  Institutions,  London,  1875,  p.  54. 


14  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

Normandy,  and  Duke  of  Acquitaine.  Then  "  he  departed 
out  of  Ireland  without  striking  one  blow,  or  building  one 
castle  .  .  .  neither  left  he  behind  him  one  true  subject 
more  than  those  that  he  found  there  at  his  first  coming 
over  .  .  ."3  But  the  crucial  step  had  been  taken.  The 
English  had  established  a  foothold  in  Ireland.  The 
invaders  occupied  the  eastern  edge  of  the  island,  which 
they  styled  the  Pale,  or  English  "march,"  and  they 
gradually  covered  it  with  castles  and  organised  it  on  a 
feudal  basis.  For  the  next  three  centuries  and  a  half  the 
English  invasion  continued  without  interruption.  New 
colonists  and  adventurers  kept  streaming  over,  without 
intermission,  to  take  the  place  of  those  who  had  abandoned 
the  enterprise,  or  else  gone  over  to  the  enemy,  and  thus  the 
wound  in  the  nation's  side  was  never  permitted  to  heal 
up.  The  Irish  replied  by  counter  attacks  under  the 
leadership  of  Aodh  O'Connor,  Art  Mac  Murrough,  Donald 
O'Neill,  and  the  Scotsman  Edward  Bruce.  The  Pale 
varied  in  extent  in  accordance  with  the  turn  taken  by 
affairs.  Yet,  even  when  its  area  was  greatest,  it 
was  not  more  than  one-third  that  of  the  whole  island. 
English  power  did  not  extend  outside  it.  As  regards  the 
territory  that  lay  beyond  it  English  public  policy  was 
confined  to  fostering  dissensions  among  the  Irish  and 
inducing  the  chiefs  of  individual  clans,  by  fear  or  favour, 
to  recognise  English  suzerainty  and  accept  feudal  titles 
and  privileges  in  return.  Thus,  on  the  one  hand,  the  Irish 
were  so  divided  and  so  much  inferior  to  the  invaders  in 
military  attainments,  that  they  could  never  hope  to 
conquer  them  and  drive  them  out  once  for  all.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  English  never  carried  their  military  operations 
to  a  conclusion.  They  satisfied  their  taste  for  adventure 
in  the  Crusades,  their  ambition  in  the  French  wars,  and 
in  these  and  in  the  Wars  of  the  Roses  they  exhausted 
their  resources.  Ireland  they  neither  subdued  nor 
conquered.     A  war  without    truce    and  without    issue 

3  Sir  John  Davies,  Discovery  (1612). 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  15 

continued  in  Ireland  for  three  centuries,  and  was  waged 
"  with  all  the  ferocity  without  the  finality  of  conquest."  4 
Far  from  conquering  Ireland,  the  English  had 
considerable  difficulty  in  maintaining  their  own  position 
there,  and  keeping  their  garrison  in  control.  Two  causes 
conspired,  in  the  nature  of  things,  to  deplete  continually 
the  numbers  of  this  "  garrison,"  so  that  it  had  to  be 
continually  "  planted  "  and  "  replanted."  Planters  never 
settled  in  Ireland  without  the  intention  of  returning. 
They  were  never  willing  to  accept  Ireland  as  their  country 
for  good  and  all  ;  and  after  spending  a  few  years  in  it, 
many  left  the  island.  Many  also  were  absentees.  Edward 
III.  had  already  to  complain  of  absenteeism  in  1295,  and 
Richard  II.  imposed  a  special  tax  on  it  shortly  afterwards. 
Moreover,  those  who  remained  and  made  Ireland  their 
home,  were  speedily  assimilated  by  their  surroundings,  so 
that  at  the  end  of  two  or  three  generations,  they  became 
Irish  themselves.  They  took  Irish  wives  and  surrounded 
themselves  with  Irish  retainers.  They  spoke  Irish  and 
wore  the  Irish  costume.  They  had  their  bards  and  their 
brehons,  and  were,  in  fact,  to  all  appearance,  Irish 
Chieftains.  Had  the  country  been  really  conquered,  this 
"  Irishisation  "  would  have  been  a  most  fortunate  turn  of 
affairs.  But  it  constituted  a  source  of  serious  danger  to 
the  partial  and  precarious  occupation  effected  by  the 
English  government,  and  hence  that  government  naturally 
did  everything  in  its  power  to  hinder  the  process  and  to 
prevent  the  fusion  of  English  and  Irish.  This  object  was 
especially  aimed  at  in  the  famous  statute  of  Kilkenny 
(1367  A.D.)  by  which  Edward  III.  forbade  Englishmen  to 
marry  Irishwomen,  to  form  alliances  with  the  Irish,  to  live 
according  to  Irish  laws,  to  use  the  Irish  language,  to 
entertain  Irishmen,  to  take  Irish  surnames,  or  to  wear  a 
moustache  after  the  Irish  fashion.  All  these  things 
were  prohibited  under  pain  of  death  or  imprisonment. 
Such   laws   were  intended  to  prevent  the  English  from 

4  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,   Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  $j. 


i6  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

sinking  to  the  level  of  the  Irish.  It  was  also  sought  to 
prevent  the  Irish  from  raising  themselves  to  the  level  of 
the  English.  Hence,  not  only  were  the  Irish  not  made 
subject  to  the  feudal  law,  but,  except  as  a  special  favour, 
they  were  refused  its  benefits.  An  "  Irish  enemy,"  as  he 
was  called,  was  treated  as  an  outlaw  and  left  a  prey  to 
the  brutality  of  the  tax-gatherers.  To  kill  an  Irishman 
or  violate  an  Irish  woman  was  no  crime  in  the  eye  of  the 
law.  All  these  measures,  however,  proved  a  complete 
failure.  The  English  in  Ireland  became  "  Irished  "  by 
mere  force  of  circumstances,  and  there  grew  up  gradually 
a  people  intermediate  between  the  native  Irish  and  the 
English  of  the  Pale.  This  third  nationality  was  composed 
of  the  Anglo- Irish,  "  Old  English  "  or  "  degenerate  English  " 
(as  the  servants  of  the  government  styled  them)  who 
being  at  all  times  turbulent  and  disloyal  to  the  English 
sovereign,  gained  the  name  of  being  "  more  Irish  than  the 
Irish  themselves,"  Hibernis  tpsis  Hiberniores.  At  their 
head  stood  certain  great  Anglo-Norman  families,  several 
of  whom  had  been  settled  in  Ireland  since  the  eleventh 
century.  These  families  occupied  an  almost  regal  position, 
possessing  immense  properties  and  innumerable  depen- 
dents. Such  were  the  Fitzgeralds  or  Geraldines,  whose 
head  was  the  Earl  of  Kildare  ;  the  Butlers,  Lords  of 
Ormond  ;  the  Desmonds,  the  de  Courceys  and  the  de 
Burghs  (Burkes).  Each  family  sought  to  gain  the  upper 
hand.  They  made  alliances  by  treaty  or  by  marriage 
with  the  great  Gaelic  chiefs,  such  as  the  O'Neills,  the 
O'Connors,  the  O'Donnells  or  the  O'Moores.  Ireland  was 
devastated  by  their  unending  contentions. 

The  king  himself  had  no  control  over  them.  He  was 
no  more  master  of  his  Irish  garrison  than  of  Ireland 
itself.  "If  all  Ireland  cannot  rule  Kildare,  then  let 
Kildare  rule  all  Ireland,"  said  Henry  VII.  at  a  later  date. 
There  was  indeed  in  Ireland  a  Lord  Lieutenant  '  who 
carried  on  the  government  for  the  king,  or  a  "  Deputy," 
who  took  the  place  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  But  whoever 
he  might  be,  in  most  cases  he  soon  fell  under  suspicion, 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  i7 

and  did  not  hold  the  post  for  long.     There  were  no  less 
than  ninety-five  governors  in  the  course  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  and  no  less  than  eighty-five  in  the  course  of  the 
fifteenth.       The  inevitable  result   of  all  this  was   that 
English  influence  gradually  diminished  and  Gaelic  influence 
increased.    By  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  "  Pale  " 
had  been  reduced  to  a  narrow  strip  of  territory  around 
Dublin  twenty  leagues  in  length  and  eight  in  breadth. 
The  great    lords  were   almost  independent   and  treated 
the  government  with  contempt.  They  exacted  "  tribute," 
or    "  black    rent,"    from    the    lesser    chiefs,    and    not 
infrequently  pushed  their  military  expeditions  up  to  the 
very  gates  of  Dublin  itself.     Outside  the  Pale  the  ancient 
Gaelic  society,  organised  on  the  clan  system  and  governed 
by  the  Brehon  laws,  continued  to  exist  with  but  slight 
modification.      Had  the  Irish  at  this  time  possessed  a 
leader  like  Brian  or  Malachy,  the  English  would  soon 
have  been  shown  the  door.      But  the  English  invasion 
had  had  the  effect  of  preventing  the  bringing  about  of 
national  unity.      It  had  "  fatally  arrested   the  possible 
evolution  of  a  truly  national  kingdom  and  national  type  of 
culture."  5    Yet  after  three  centuries  and  a  half  the  wave 
of  invasion  seemed  now   to   have   spent   its    force  ;  the 
invader   seemed    on    the  point   of   departing    from  the 
country  for  good.     All  progress  had  come  to  a  stand-still. 
The  English  had  neither  permitted  the  country  to  develop 
on  its  own  fines,  nor  been  able  to  develop  it  themselves,  and 
the  solution  of  what  was  henceforth  to  be  known  as  the 
Irish  question  appeared  to  be  further  off  than  ever. 

III. — The  Conquest  (1495-1603).1 

When,  with  the  accession  of  the  Tudors,  the  power  of  the 
nobles  was  broken  and  the  English  throne  became  a  firmly 

5  James  Bryce,  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  London,  1888,  p.   15. 

1  On  this  period  see  especially  Ireland  under  Elizabeth,  by  Don  Philip 
O'Sullivan  Bear  (translated  from  the  Latin  original,  1621  ),  Dublin, 
1903.  The  State  Papers  (Times  of  the  Tudors),  edited  by  H.  C.  Hamilton. 
Sir  John  Davies,  Discovery  of  the  True  Causes  why  Ireland  was  never 
entirely  subdued,  1612,     Holinshed,  Chronicles  of  England,  Scotland  and 

C 


1 8  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

established  despotism,  there  came  a  change  in  English 
policy  in  regard  to  Ireland.  The  King's  Government  set 
itself  to  make  the  royal  power  supreme  in  the  Pale,  and 
to  effect  a  real  conquest  of  the  whole  island.  Even 
under  the  new  conditions,  however,  the  Government  acted 
only  when  compelled  by  force  of  circumstances,  and  their 
conduct  was  characterised  at  once  by  so  little  steadfastness 
of  purpose  and  such  extreme  cruelty  that  the  conquest 
took  two  centuries  to  accomplish.  It  was  achieved  only 
as  the  result  of  a  series  of  wars,  crimes,  and  massacres, 
which  left  the  people  prostrate,  thinned  in  numbers,  and 
filled  for  ever  after  with  an  undying  hatred. 

It  is  to  be  set  down  to  the  credit  of  the  Tudors,  that 
there  was  at  any  rate  one  among  them  who  sought  in 
some  respects  to  govern  Ireland  well.  It  is  a  strange 
coincidence  that  this  should  have  been  Henry  VIII., 
who  was  at  the  very  same  time  sowing  the  seeds  of  so 
much  future  trouble  by  introducing  the  Reformation  into 
Ireland.  Under  his  predecessor,  Henry  VII.,  English 
arms,  for  the  first  time  for  many  a  long  day,  had  proved 
victorious  in  Ireland,  under  the  banner  of  Gerald,  Earl 
of  Kildare,  a  noble  who  had  come  over  to  the  King's 
side  ;  and  the  army,  profiting  by  its  success,  had  pushed 
its  way  into  the  most  distant  parts  of  Connacht. 

Henry  VIII.,  being  thus  confident  of  the  future, 
determined  to  win  the  sovranty  of  Ireland  by  peaceful 
means.  He  first  set  about  establishing  his  authority  over 
the  nobles  of  the  Pale.  He  showed  the  same  harshness 
towards  the  great  barons  of  Ireland  as  towards  the  great 
lords  of  England.  He  twice  cast  Gerald,  Earl  of  Kildare, 
son  of  the  Earl  just  mentioned,  into  the  Tower  of 
London  ;  and  in  1534,  after  the  rebellion  of  Lord  Thomas 
Fitzgerald  (called  "  Silken  Thomas  ")  he  put  him  to  death 

Ireland,  London,  1577.  The  Carew  Papers,  edited  by  J.  S.  Brewer 
and  William  Bullen  in  the  Calendars  of  State  Papers.  Spenser,  A  View 
of  the  Present  State  of  Ireland,  1691.  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  1636. 
Pacata  Hibernia,  by  Sir  George  Carew,  1633.  F.  Moryson,  History 
of  Ireland,  1 599-1603,  Dublin,  1735.  R.  Payne,  Brief  Description  of 
Ireland,  London,  1589.  Richard  Bagwell,  Ireland  under  the  Tudors, 
London,  1885. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  19 

with  five  of  his  uncles,  although  he  had  promised  to  spare 
his  life.  "  The  King  would  never  rest  until  he  had  had 
the  blood  of  the  Géraldine  race,"  said  the  Irish.  Towards 
the  Gaelic  population  of  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  his 
conduct  was  characterised  by  great  mildness  ;  he  sought 
to  conciliate  them,  ordered  that  their  customs  should  be 
respected,  and  hoped  to  found  his  power  in  Ireland  on  an 
aristocracy  of  Celtic  race.  The  great  Irish  chiefs,  Conn 
O'Neill  and  Brian  O'Connor,  had  taken  up  arms  to  avenge 
their  relatives,  the  Geraldines,  but  Henry  VIII. ,  once  he 
had  suppressed  the  rising,  won  them  over  to  his  side, 
received  their  submission,  granted  them  lands — lands 
taken  from  the  monasteries — and  gave  them  English  in 
addition  to  their  Celtic  titles.  Conn  O'Neill  became  Earl 
of  Tyrone  ;  Hugh  O'Donnell  Earl  of  Tyrconnell  ;  The 
O'Brien,  Earl  of  Thomond  ;  The  O'Quin,  Earl  of 
Dunraven.2  "  He  thus  showed,''  as  Richey  tells  us,  "  a 
moderation,  a  conciliatory  spirit,  a  respect  for  the  feelings 
of  the  Celtic  population,  a  sympathy  with  the  poor,  which 
no  subsequent  English  ruler  has  ever  displayed.'^  When 
in  the  Parliament  of  1542,  he  assumed  the  title  of  King 
of  Ireland,  the  country  seemed  to  have  been  brought 
definitely  and  permanently  under  his  sway,  and  as  a  matter 
of  fact  the  Irish  remained  at  peace  until  his  death. 

But  after  his  death  there  came  a  change,  and  a  policy 
of  oppression  and  massacre  took  the  place  of  his  policy 
of  conciliation.  In  the  "  Pale  "  indeed  Elizabeth  and  the 
Stuarts  continued  the  levelling  policy  of  Henry  VIII., 
employing  for  the  purpose  the  strong  hand  of  such 
governors  as  Sir  John  Perrot  and  the  celebrated  Strafford. 
But  as  regards  the  native  Irish,  they  no  longer  followed 
Henry's  counsels.  They  began  by  forcibly  and  pitilessly 
introducing  English  law,  English  law-courts  and  English 

2  Chiefs  of  Celtic  clans  bore  (and  their  descendants  still  bear)  the 
article  The  ("  an  ")  before  their  name  (that  of  their  clan)  :  The 
O'Donnell,  The  MacDermott.  When  Shane  O'Neill  took  arms  in  1560 
against  Elizabeth  he  gave  up  the  title  of  Earl  of  Tyrone  and  again 
took  the  name  of  "  The  O'Neill." 

3  Short  History  of  the  Irish  People,  p.  268. 


20  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

institutions  into  the  Celtic  part  of  the  island.  Henry  VII. 
had  already  made  English  laws  applicable  to  Ireland  by 
Poynings  Act,  by  which  he  had  rendered  the  Irish 
Parliament  subordinate  to  the  English  crown.  The 
Government  now  decided  to  drive  out  Celtic  civilisation 
by  main  force  and  replace  it  by  English.  They  deter- 
mined also  to  conquer  Ireland  by  force  of  arms,  and, 
with  this  object  in  view,  decided  to  take  a  step,  which 
Henry  VIII.  had  always  refused  to  take  even  on  the 
advice  of  Grey  and  Wolsey,  namely,  to  confiscate  the 
soil  of  Ireland  and  "  plant  "  it  with  Englishmen.  The 
era  of  confiscations  and  "  plantations  "  was  now  to  be  in- 
augurated. 

Plantations  were  indeed  no  novelty.      From  the  very 

beginning   of    the    English  occupation,   while    the   Irish 

chiefs    were    being    invited    to    come    and   do    homage 

and  receive  back  the  tribal  territories  as  private  property 

on  a  feudal  tenure,  grants  of   lands  were  perpetually  being 

made  to  the  invaders.      The  grants  were  either  of  real 

fiefs,  lands  which  had  been  confiscated,  or  of  lands  which 

were  to  be  confiscated  in  the  future,  fiefs  in  partibus,  as 

it  was  put.      But  it  was  under  Queen  Mary  Tudor  that 

the  operation  was  for  the  first  time  undertaken  on  a 

grand  scale.      In  1556  Deputy  Bellingham  invaded  the 

districts    of    Leix    and    Offally,    which   belonged    to    the 

O'Moores  and  O'Connors,   confiscated    them  and  made 

them   into    two    counties,    King's    County   and    Queen's 

County.        They    were    then    "  planted  "    with    English 

settlers.      In  Elizabeth's  reign  the  Desmond  rebels  were 

attainted    in    the    year    1580,    and    their    lands,    which 

comprised    almost     the    whole    province    of    Munster, 

distributed  among  a  crowd  of  greedy  "  undertakers."     A 

similar  transaction  was   carried  out   on   an   even   more 

extensive  scale  under  James  I.,  when,  after  the  flight  of 

the    Earls,4   the  whole  of    Ulster  was   confiscated   and 

planted  with  from  twenty  to  thirty  thousand  settlers, 

4  Tyrone  and  Tyrconnell  (1607). 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  21 

mostly  Scotchmen.  It  was  in  this  way  that  the  Ulster  of 
modern  times,  Scotch  in  nationality  and  Presbyterian  in 
religion,  first  came  into  being.  Worse  was  to  come. 
Throughout  the  reigns  of  the  two  first  Stuarts  the  work 
of  confiscation  under  legal  forms  was  pursued,  by  means 
of  an  odious  combination  of  quibbling,  swindling  and 
tyranny.  Under  James  I.,  Gaelic  tenures  were  abolished 
throughout  the  island  and  replaced  by  the  English  land 
system,  and  when  the  modus  operandi  was  thus  simplified, 
a  swarm  of  "  discoverers  "  started  to  dispoil  the  land- 
owners of  Ireland,  by  breaking  the  titles  under  which 
they  held  their  lands.  Nearly  half  a  million  acres  were 
seized  upon  in  this  fashion.  Ravages  like  those  of  war, 
as  Edmund  Burke  put  it,  took  place  in  a  time  of  perfect 
peace.  On  the  eve  of  his  downfall,  Strafford  was  making 
preparations  to  confiscate  Connacht,  the  only  province 
that  had  hitherto  remained  untouched. 

What  measure  of  success,  it  may  be  asked,  did  these 
"  plantations,"  whether  effected  by  methods  of  violence 
or  under  a  cloak  of  legality,  attain  ?  Did  they  achieve 
their  purpose  and  secure  the  subjugation  of  the  country, 
by  filling  it  with  English  settlers  ?  It  may  be  answered 
at  once  that  they  did  not.  The  newcomers  were,  for  the 
most  part,  the  dregs  of  the  English  population,  il  a  motley 
crew  of  adventurers,"  as  Lord  Clare  expressed  it  at  a 
later  date.  5  Elizabeth  and  James  had  imposed 
conditions  upon  the  settlers,  but  these  were  disregarded. 
Many  settlers  took  the  earliest  opportunity  of  selling  their 
allotments  to  speculators.  Others  did  not  even  trouble 
themselves  to  make  the  journey  to  Ireland,  and  as  to 
diffusing  English  civilisation,  they  did  so,  in  the  words  of 
Goldwin  Smith,  "  much  as  an  American  settler  would 
diffuse  it  among  Red  Indians,  by  improving  them,  as 
far  as  they  could,  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth." 

5  "  The  vultures  settled  upon  Ireland,"  as  Goldwin  Smith  puts  it 
(Irish  History  and  Irish  Character,  p.  79).  Cf.  the  saying  of  Stewart, 
a  contemporary,  cited  in  Lecky  (II.,  109),  "  Going  to  Ireland  was 
looked  on  as  a  miserable  mark  of  a  deplorable  person." 


22  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

Everyone  in  Ireland  was  thus  affected  by  the  confisca- 
tions ;  the  Irish  suffered  as  well  as  the  Anglo-Irish,  the 
Desmonds  as  well  as  the  O'Neills,  those  who  were  Gaels 
by  race  equally  with  those  who  were  so  by  adoption  ; 
and  the  result  that  might  have  been  expected  ensued. 
The  whole  country  united  in  opposition  to  the  oppressions 
and  confiscations  of  English  law,  and  of  the  English 
";  planters  "  whom  it  had  brought  into  being.  Each  chief 
felt  himself  individually  threatened  with  a  bill  of 
attainder  or  a  decree  for  confiscation  and,  perhaps,  by  an 
English  dagger  or  English  poison  as  well.  Whatever 
might  have  been  the  excesses  or  misdeeds  of  the  chief 
himself,  he  had  the  sympathy  of  the  people,  for  there  was 
no  one  else  to  defend  them  against  the  foreign  foe. 
Whenever  one  of  them  rose  in  revolt  the  whole  province 
rose  with  him  ;  and  each  of  the  chiefs  did  rise,  but 
unhappily  for  themselves,  never  in  a  simultaneous  and  con- 
certed movement.  There  was  no  combined  action.  They 
never  reaped  the  benefit  of  the  alliances  they  had  formed 
on  the  continent,  and  the  English  were  always  able  to 
procure  allies  and  promote  defection  among  them. 

Three  great  insurrections  took  place  during  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth.  In  1560  came  that  of  Shane  O'Neill,  who  defeated 
Sussex,  treated  with  the  Queen  in  London,  defied  English 
authority,  and  met  his  end  in  1567,  when  he  was  murdered 
by  the  instructions  of  Lord  Deputy  Sydney.  Desmond 
rose  in  1567  and,  in  a  more  serious  campaign,  in  1579. 
Munster  rose  with  him,  and  he  pushed  his  operations  as 
far  as  the  Wicklow  mountains.  But  after  a  contest, 
protracted  over  four  years,  he  was  slain  by  his  pursuers 
in  a  remote  part  of  Kerry.  Finally,  in  1596,  another 
O'Neill,  Aodh  (or  Hugh),  believing  that  his  downfall  was 
being  plotted  in  Dublin,  made  common  cause  with  his 
rival,  O'Donnell,  and  began  by  defeating  the  English  under 
Bagenal.  He  received,  however,  but  poor  support  from 
Desmond  (the  "  sugaun  earl").  Reinforcements  from 
Spain  under  Don  Juan  d'Aguila  having  come  too  late, 
he    was  after  a  time  compelled  to  come  to  terms  with 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  23 

Mountjoy,  under  which  he  was  conceded  all  the  honours 
of  war. 

Elizabeth  had  thus  made  an  end  of  insurrections, 
many  as  they  had  been.  But  the  price  had  been  a 
heavy  one.  On  each  occasion  the  course  of  events  was 
the  same.  The  rebellion  was  first  provoked  by  systematic 
oppression,  by  treachery,6  or  by  acts  of  violence.  Then 
it  was  suppressed  by  wholesale  devastation  and  massacre. 
The  English  were  too  busily  occupied  with  wars,  plots  and 
religious  strife,  to  trouble  about  effecting  a  complete  and 
final  conquest  of  Ireland  ;  hence  cruelty  took  the  place 
of  vigorous  action,  and  extermination  was  substituted  for 
conquest.  The  cold-blooded  and  systematic  savagery  of 
Elizabeth's  lieutenants,  Sussex,  Mountjoy,  Raleigh, 
Pelham,  Grey,  and  Carew,  has  seldom  been  equalled,  and 
the  accounts  of  their  proceedings  given  by  Englishmen, 
such  as  Carew,  himself,  Spenser,  Holinshed  and  Sir  John 
Davies,  fill  one  with  horror.  "  The  suppression  of  the 
native  race,  in  the  wars  against  Shane  O'Neill,  Desmond 
and  Tyrone,  was  carried  out  with  a  ferocity  which 
surpassed  that  of  Alva  in  the  Netherlands  and  has  seldom 
been  exceeded  in  the  pages  of  history."  These  are  the 
words  with  which  the  famous  historian,  Lecky,  opens  his 
account  of  these  horrors. 7 

Lecky  then  tells  us  how  Sussex  first  sought  to  have 
Shane  O'Neill  murdered,  and  afterwards  sent  him  poison  ; 
how  Essex,  having  accepted  Brian  O'Neill's  hospitality, 
had  the  house  surrounded,  massacred  O'Neill's  followers, 
and  then  sent  him  and  his  wife  to  Dublin,  where  they 
were  both  put  to  death  ;  how  when  it  was  sought  to 
wring  a  confession  of  rebellion  from  the  Catholic  Arch- 
bishop Hurley,  he  was  tortured  by  having  his  feet  roasted 
before  he  was  sent  to  the  gallows.  But  isolated  incidents 
of  this  nature  serve  only  to  distract  our  attention  from 

6  See  the  many  instances  in  Leland,  Moryson,  Holinshed  and  in  the 
State  Papers.    Cf.  Daniel  O'Connell.    A  Memoir  of  Ireland.    Chap.  I. 

1  History  of  England  in  the  iSth  Century.  II..  p.  95.  (See  pp.  95-98 
Cf.  Froude,  History  of  England,  ed    1875.     Chaps.  X.  and  XI. 


24  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

the  broad  features  of  the  history  of  the  period,  and  thus 
prevent  us  from  realising  to  the  full  the  atrocious 
character  of  these  wars.  They  were,  in  truth,  campaigns 
of  extermination  in  which  the  Irish  were  slaughtered  like 
wild  beasts.  There  was  a  deliberate  and  systematic 
butchery,  not  only  of  grown  men,  but  of  women  and 
children  as  well.  Parties  of  soldiers  scoured  the  country, 
putting  to  the  sword  everyone  they  met,  and  the  English 
generals  made  no  secret  of  their  massacres  of  women  and 
unoffending    peasants.  Irish    annalists    relate,    with 

shocking  details,  how  the  soldiery  of  Pelham  and  Ormond 
used  to  slay  i;  blind  and  feeble  men,  women,  boys  and 
girls,  rich  persons,  idiots  and  old  people/'  They  tell  us 
how,  in  the  Desmond  country,  when  all  resistance  was  at 
an  end,  the  soldiers  forced  the  people  into  old  barns, 
which  they  then  set  on  fire,  putting  to  the  sword  any  who 
sought  to  escape  ;  how  soldiers  were  seen  to  catch  up 
children  on  the  points  of  their  swords,  making  them 
squirm  in  the  air  in  their  death  agony  ;  or  yet  again,  how 
women  were  found  hanged  from  trees,  with  the  children 
at  their  bosoms  strangled  in  the  hair  of  their  mothers. 
In  Ulster,  too,  Mountjoy  "  never  showed  mercy  to  any  but 
such  as  had  drawn  the  blood  of  some  of  their  fellow 
rebels  ;  thus,  MacMahon  and  MacArtmoyle  offered  to 
submit,  but  neither  could  be  received  without  the  other's 
head.;;s 

No  doubt,  the  cruelties  were  not  all  on  one  side, 
but  is  it  the  part  of  him  who  excels  in  force  to  excel  also 
in  inhumanity  ?  "  The  sword, ;;  continues  Lecky,  "  was 
not  found  sufficiently  expeditious,  but  another  method 
proved  more  efficacious."     Year  after  year  over  a  great 

S  Leckv  op.  cit.  IL,  95-98.  In  1 579  the  garrison  of  Smerwick.  County 
8  cry  seven  hundred  in  number,  having  surrendered  at  discretion 
Lord  Deputy-  Grey  had  them  put  to  death  in  the  presence  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  (Leland  op.  cit.  Bk.  IV.,  chap.  II.).  The  same  Lord  Grey, 
accompanied  by  Ormond,  entered  Sleughlogher  in  open  daylight  and 
put  four  hundred  persons  to  death  (Rolinshed  op.  cit.  VI.).  On  the 
massacre  of  Mullaghmast,  accomplished  by  treachery,  and  in  comparison 
with  which  that  of  Glencoe  pales  into  insignificance,  see  Leland,  op. 
cit.  Bk.  IV.,  chap.  IL  Cf.  O'Connell.  A  Memoir  of  Ireland,  Obser- 
vations, Proofs  and  Illustrations,  Chap.  I. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  25 

part  of  Ireland  all  means  of  human  subsistence  were 
destroyed,  no  quarter  was  given  to  prisoners  who  sur- 
rendered, and  the  whole  population  was  skilfully  and 
steadily  starved  to  death.  The  troops  of  Sir  Richard 
Percie  "  left  neither  corn  nor  barn,  nor  house  unburnt 
between  Kinsale  and  Ross." 

The  troops  of  Captain  Harvie  did  the  like  between 
Ross  and  Ban  try.  The  troops  of  Sir  Charles  Wilmot 
entered  without  resistance  an  Irish  camp,  where  they 
found  nothing  but  hurt  and  sick  men,  ;i  whose  pains  and 
lives  by  the  soldiers  were  both  determined."  The  Lord 
President,  as  he  himself  assures  us,  having  heard  that  the 
Munster  fugitives  were  harboured  in  certain  parts  of  that 
province,  diverted  his  forces  thither,  '*  burnt  all  the  houses 

and  corn,  taking  great  preys and  harassing  the 

country  killed  all  mankind  that  were  found  therein." 
Thence  he  passed  to  other  parts,  where  ';  he  did  the  like, 
not  leaving  behind  him  man  or  beast,  corn  or  cattle, 
except  such  as  had  been  conveyed  into  earth."  A  high 
English  official,  writing  in  1582,  computed  that  in  six 
months,  more  than  30,000  people  had  been  starved  to 
death  in  Munster,  besides  those  who  were  hanged  or  who 
perished  by  the  sword. 9 

These  things  happened  during  the  course  of  a  war. 
But  even  in  a  period  of  complete  peace,  the  ;"  Presidents  " 
of  the  provinces  devastated  the  country  in  a  manner 
equally  appalling.  Malby,  President  of  Connacht,  tells 
us  that,  having  made  his  way  into  the  territory  of  the 
Burkes,  he  decided  to  lay  waste  the  countryside  with 
fire  and  sword,  sparing  neither  young  nor  old,  that  he 
burnt  everything  and  put  to  the  sword  everyone  he  met 
with,  and  that  having  taken  a  castle  by  assault  he  handed 
over  the  garrison,  who  had  surrendered,  to  the  mercy  of 
his  soldiers,  who  put  them  all  to  death.10 

9  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  96-97.  The  quotations  are  from  Sir  George 
Carew's  Pacata  Hibernia. 

10  Froude,  History  of  England,  XL,  p.  197. 


26  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

Leland  relates11  that  Sir  Arthur  Chichester,  the  governor 
of  Carrickfergus,  laid  waste  the  country  for  twenty  miles 
around  that  town.  Sir  Samuel  Bagenal,  the  governor  of 
Newry,  did  the  same,  and  the  English  garrisons  were 
occupied  every  day  in  the  work  of  rapine  and  devastation. 

Famine  was  deemed  the  quickest  and  surest  means  of 
reducing  the  rebels,  as  we  are  told  by  Leland  in  another 
place.  This  was  the  view  of  that  gentle  idealist,  the 
author  of  the  "  Faerie  Queen,"  Edmund  Spenser,  who 
explains  with  perfect  naivety  that  the  famished  Irish 
"  will  soon  be  compelled  to  devour  each  other."  We 
may  quote  Spenser  further  as  to  the  state  of  Munster 
after  the  Desmond  war.  The  poet  had  received  a 
considerable  allotment  of  confiscated  land  from  his 
protector,  Grey.  "  Out  of  every  corner  of  the  woodes 
and  glynnes,"  he  tells  us,  "  they  came  creeping  foorthe 
upon  theyr  handes,  for  theyre  legges  could  not  beare 
them  ;  they  looked  like  anatomyes  of  deathe,  they  spake 
like  ghosts  crying  out  of  theyre  graves  ;  they  did  eat  of 
the  dead  carrions,  happy  were  they  if  they  could  find 
them,  yea  and  one  another  soon  after  insoemuch  as  the 
very  carcases  they  spared  not  to  scrape  out  of  theyr 
graves.  And  if  they  found  a  plot  of  water-cresses  or 
sham-rokes,  to  these  they  flocked  as  to  a  feast  for  the 
time,  yet  not  able  long  to  continue  therewithal!  that  in 
short  space  there  were  none  almost  left,  and  a  most 
populous  and  plentiful  country  suddenly  made  voyde  of 
man  or  beast." 

"  From  Dingle  to  the  Rock  of  Cashel,"  say  the  Annals 
of  the  Four  Masters,  "  not  the  lowing  of  a  cow  nor  the 
voice  of  the  plowman  was  that  year  to  be  heard."  The 
work  was  carried  out  in  the  same  way  in  the  North. 
"  In  the  single  county  of  Tyrone  3,000  persons  in  a  few 
months  were  starved.  No  spectacle  was  more  frequent 
in  the  ditches  of  towns  and  especially  of  wasted  counties, 
than  to  see  multitudes  of  these  poor  people  dead  with 

11  Leland,  op.  cit.  IV.,  Chap.  V.  It  must  be  remembered  that  Leland 
writes  as  an  Englishman  and  a  Protestant  Minister.  Cf.  Spenser. 
A  View  of  the  Present  State  of  Ireland,  p.  654  {Globe  Ed.). 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  27 

their  mouths  all  coloured  green  with  eating  nettles,  docks, 
and  all  things  they  could  find  above  the  ground."  On 
one  occasion,  Sir  Arthur  Chichester,  with  some  English 
officers,  saw  three  small  children — the  eldest  not  above 
ten  years  old — feeding  off  the  flesh  of  their  starved  mother. 
In  the  neighbourhood  of  Newry  famine  gave  rise  to  a 
novel  and  appalling  crime.  It  was  discovered  that  some 
old  women  were  accustomed  by  fighting  fires  to  attract 
children,  whom  they  then  murdered  and  proceeded  to 
devour.12  Ireland,  brazed,  as  in  a  mortar,  to  use  Sir 
John  Davies'  phrase,  at  last  submitted.  In  the  last  years 
of  the  century  half  the  population  had  perished. 
Elizabeth  reigned  over  corpses  and  ashes.  Hibernia 
Pacata.     Ireland  was  "pacified."^ 

IV. — The  Conquest  (1603-1691).1 

"  Peace  reigned  in  Ireland,"  but  the  conquest  had  not 
yet  been  achieved,  and  the  work  of  subjugation  was 
destined  to  be  carried  out  by  massacres,  confiscations  and 
"  plantations,"  in  the  seventeenth  century  precisely  as 
in  the  sixteenth.  Things  followed  much  the  same  course 
in  the  reigns  of  the  Stuarts  and  under  Cromwell  as  in 
the  days  of  the  Tudors,  and  the  conquest  of  Ireland  was 
not  finally  achieved  until  the  time  of  William  III.  But 
in  the  seventeenth  century  the  work  of  subjugation 
assumed  at  once  more  of  a  religious  and  more  of  a 
political  complexion.  Ireland  had  remained  Catholic  when 
England  had  embraced  Protestantism  ;  and  as  an 
inevitable  result  religious  persecution  was  added  to  race 

12  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  98. 

13  Lord  Grey,  one  of  Elizabeth's  Lieutenants     (Leland,o/>.  cit.  IV., 
Chap.  II.). 

1  See  especially  on  this  epoch,  Ball,  The  Reformed  Church  in  Ireland, 
London,  1886.  State  Papers  (reign  of  James  I.).  Carte,  History  of 
the  Life  of  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  1735-1736.  Sir  William  Petty, 
Political  Anatomy  of  Ireland,  1691.  Prendergast,  The  Cromwellian 
Settlement  in  Ireland,  2nd  edition,  Dublin,  1875.  J-  F-  Taylor,  Owen 
Roe  O'Neill,  3rd  edition,  London  and  Dublin,  1904.  Thomas  Davis. 
The  Patriot  Parliament  (3rd  edition  in  the  New  Irish  Library,  London). 


28  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

domination.  Again,  Ireland  being  so  closely  connected 
with  England,  could  not  but  be  affected  by  the  two 
revolutions  for  which  the  Stuarts  were  responsible,  and  to 
which  they  fell  victims.  The  Irish  took  the  losing  side. 
England  wreaked  vengeance  on  them  for  their  loyalty, 
real  or  apparent,  to  a  reigning  house  that  cared  no  more 
for  the  Irish  than  the  Irish  cared  for  them,  that  in  truth 
regarded  Ireland  as  but  a  pawn  in  their  political  game. 

Again,  when  the  English  turned  Protestant,  they 
naturally  desired  that  the  Irish  should  do  the  same.2  But 
the  Tudors,  who  persecuted  Catholicism  so  sharply  in 
England,  had  been  tolerant,  by  comparison,  in  Ireland.  The 
Church  of  England  was  not  long  in  establishing  a  foothold 
in  the  east  of  Ireland,  as  a  result  of  the  confiscation  of 
churches,  monasteries  and  religious  houses. 3  But  at 
first  no  attempt  was  made  to  extend  its  influence  beyond 
the  "  Pale,"  and  hence,  outside  the  Pale,  Irish  and  Anglo- 
Irish  alike  remained  Catholic. 

Elizabeth  was  the  first  to  persecute  "  Papist  recusants," 
that  is,  those  who  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  supremacy. 
She  imprisoned  or  put  to  death  bishops,  monks,  and 
Jesuits.4  Moreover,  as  the  "  plantations  "  progressed,  the 
Anglican  church  grew  in  power.  Having  been  triumphantly 
endowed  with  the  spoils  of  Catholicism  by  Henry  VIII. , 
it  embarked  upon  a  course  of  persecution.  From  this 
forward  the  animosity  between  the  Catholics  and  the  new 
Protestant  "planters  "  grew  every  day  more  bitter.  The 
Puritans  assumed  a  threatening  attitude.     Papists  were 

2  G.  de  Beaumont  op.  cit.   i,  32. 

3  Anglicanism  was  first  introduced  into  Ireland  by  the  Act  of 
Supremacy  of  1537,  which  imposed  an  oath  which  anyone  refusing  to 
take  was  guilty  of  High  Treason.  This  was  followed  by  an  Act  for 
the  Supression  of  Abbeys,  which  was  extended  to  all  religious  houses 
in  1542?  Convents  and  abbeys  were  declared  to  be  the  property  of 
the  Crown.  These  Acts  were  subsequently  repealed  by  Queen  Mary 
Tudor,  in  1553,  but  the  confiscated  property  which  had  changed  hands 
was  not  restored  to  its  owners.  Finally,  Anglicanism  was  definitely 
established  in  Ireland  by  Elizabeth,  by  the  Act  of  Supremacy  and 
Uniformity  of  I  562. 

4  Lecky,  the  great  historian  (op.  cit.  II.,  99-103),  lays  stress  on  the 
point  that  the  wars  of  Elizabeth  in  Ireland  were  entirely  political  and 
agrarian,  and  not  religious  wars.      This  is  most  questionable.      Nay, 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  29 

excluded  from  all  places  of  emolument,  and  were  thrown 
into  gaol,  or  had  their  goods  confiscated,  because  they 
refused  to  take  the  oath.  When  we  add  to  the  rancour 
produced  by  this  persecution  that  which  resulted  from 
wholesale  confiscations,  from  the  "  planting  "  of  Ulster  in 
James  I.'s  reign,  from  Strafford's  projected  confiscation 
of  Connacht,  from  deeds  of  spoliation  carried  on  under 
legal  forms,  from  the  menace  that  hung  over  every  head 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  country,  there 
is  small  difficulty  in  understanding  how  it  came  about 
that  all  the  Catholics  of  Ireland — save  a  few  Government 
hacks,  like  the  Ormonds — profited  by  the  weakness  of 
the  Crown  in  these  troubled  times,  and  rose  en  masse,  not 
for  the  king,  but  against  the  king,  against  the  English 
Government,  against  the  planter  and  the  persecutor,  in 
the  Great  Rebellion  of  164 1. 

The  facts  can  be  found  in  all  contemporary  accounts 
of  the  insurrection.  The  men  of  Ulster  were  the  first  to 
rise  and  drive  out  the  new  "  planters  "  not  a  few  of  whom 
perished  in  the  conflict. 5  The  insurrection  then  spread 
through  the  country,  having  now  assumed  a  purely 
religious  aspect.  The  reprisals  of  the  Protestants  and  the 
proscriptions  decreed  by  the  English  Parliament  added 
to  its  vigour.  Victory  crowned  the  campaign  under  the 
leadership  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill.  The  insurgents  gained 
supreme  power  throughout  Catholic  Ireland  and  proceeded 
to  establish  their  Parliament — the  Confederation  of 
Kilkenny.  They  entered  into  negotiations  with  Charles  I. 
and  were  duped  by  him.    Their  excesses,  terrible  as  they 

rather  it  is  certain  that  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  on, 
the  religious  question  had  become  acute  in  Ireland,  and  anti-Catholic 
persecutions  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  risings  of  that  epoch. 

5  See  Lecky's  refutation  of  the  exaggerations,  by  which,  certain  anti- 
Irish  historians  have  endeavoured  to  paint  the  Ulster  Rebellion  of  1641 
as  a  general  massacre  of  Protestants,  a  parallel  to  the  Sicilian  Vespers, 
some  of  them,  putting  the  number  of  slain  at  50,000,  and  others  at 
100,000/  or  even  200,000  or  310,000.  The  number  of  Protestants  slain 
was  from  four  to  eight  thousand.  Lecky  points  out  the  interest  which 
the  English  in  Ireland  had  in  exaggerating  the  accounts  of  the  massacre. 
They  hoped  in  this  way  to  strengthen  their  shaky  titles  to  their  property 
and  to  pave  the  way  for  the  Penal  Laws.    (Cf.  cit.  II.  128,  153). 


30  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

were,  were  far  less  terrible  than  those  perpetrated  by 
Sir  Charles  Coote,  St.  Léger,  and  Sir  Frederick  Hamilton, 
who,  on  the  opposite  side,  proved  themselves  worthy 
successors  of  Mount  joy  and  Carew. 

From  the  first  the  Lords  Justices  ordered  the  troops  to 
refuse  all  quarter.  In  Leinster,  they  were  instructed  to 
slay  and  destroy  the  rebels,  their  adherents  and  their 
accomplices,  to  burn  and  raze  to  the  ground  all  towns, 
places  and  houses,  where  they  received  shelter,  to  put  to 
the  sword  all  the  inhabitants  capable  of  bearing  arms. 
They  had  orders  to  put  to  death  any  priest  that  fell  into 
the  hands  of  the  troops.  It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine 
the  fashion  in  which  such  orders  were  carried  out.  The 
details  of  the  massacres  that  ensued  are  best  omitted.6 
It  is  pleasanter  to  recall,  as  Lecky  does, 7  how  Owen 
Roe  O'Neill  made  it  his  practice  to  repress  excesses  on 
the  part  of  his  troops  and  invariably  gave  quarter  to 
prisoners  ;  how  the  Synod  of  Kilkenny  in  1642  decreed 
excommunication  against  Catholics  guilty  of  pillage,  arson 
or  murder  ;  how  the  rebels  did  honour  to  the  Protestant 
Bishop  Bedell,  protected  his  ministrations,  and  gave  him, 
on  his  death,  a  magnificent  funeral  with  military  honours. 
It  was  at  his  funeral  that  the  crowd  made  use  of  the 
famous  cry,  " Requiescat  in  face,  U Uirnus  AnglorumV 

But,  in  England,  the  revolution  had  been  successful. 
It  was  no  longer  with  the  King,  but  with  the  "  Round- 
heads," with  Cromwell  and  his  Iron-sides,  that  the  Irish 

t>  See  Lecky,  op.  cit.  156  et  seq.  Carte's  soldiers  perpetrated  wholesale 
massacres  and  spared  neither  women  nor  children.  Saint-Leger  ravaged 
Munster  with  fire  and  sword.  One  day  he  had  a  woman,  big  with 
child,  cut  open,  and  her  three  children,  taken  from  her  arms,  impaled 
upon  spear  points.  Near  Newry,  Monroe  and  his  troops  killed  in  one 
day  seven  hundred  peasants,  men,  women  and  children,  who  were 
driving  their  flocks.  In  Westmeath  and  Longford  his  soldiers  set  the 
country  ablaze  and  slew  everybody.  In  Island  Magee  thirty  families 
were  massacred  in  their  beds  by  the  Carrickfergus  garrison.  Sir  William 
Coote  tells  us  himself  of  the  exploits  of  his  regiment  in  Ulster — "  Starved 
and  famished  of  the  vulgar  sort  whose  goods  were  seized  on  by  this 
regiment,  7,000."  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  phrase  "  Nits  will  be 
lice,"  was  coined  to  justify  the  slaughter  of  children.  Cf.  O'Connell, 
A  Memoir  of  Ireland  (Observations,  Proofs,  etc.      Chap.  III.). 

7  Op.  cit.  II.,   161 -167. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  31 

had  now  to  deal.  Ormond  and  the  Royalist  forces  now 
sided  with  the  insurgents  against  whom  they  had  but 
lately  been  engaged,  but  both  parties  were  destined  to 
succumb  before  the  arms  of  the  Puritans.  Cromwell 
landed  in  Ireland  in  1649  and  proceeded  "  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  "  to  massacre  the  garrison  of  Drogheda,  thirty 
thousand  in  number,  Englishmen  for  the  most  part,  though 
Catholics.  A  similar  fate  overtook  the  garrison  of 
Wexford.  Before  long,  Ireland  lay  prostrate  at  the 
Protector's  feet.  He  decided  to  deal  with  the  country 
on  a  very  simple  plan,  namely,  to  exterminate  the  Irish 
inhabitants  and  make  it  a  land  inhabited  only  by 
Englishmen.  In  the  eleven  years  of  the  war  616,000 
persons  had  already  perished  out  of  a  total  population  of 
1, 466, 000. 8  The  policy  of  extermination  had  done  its 
work.  Priests  were  hanged,  banished,  or  imprisoned  in 
Arran.  A  campaign  of  persecution  was  maintained  against 
the  Catholics.  Between  thirty  and  forty  thousand 
Irishmen  fled  to  France  and  Spain  to  join  those  who  had 
formerly  become  exiles  during  the  wars  and  confiscations 
of  Elizabeth's  reign.  Thousands  of  young  girls,  women 
and  children,  were  sold  as  slaves  and  sent  to  Jamaica 
and  the  Barbadoes,  as  were  also  all  rebels  taken  with  arms 
in  their  hands.  9  In  this  way  Ireland  was  turned  into  a 
desert  and  cleared  of  its  inhabitants.  The  wolves  came 
to  ravage  at  the  very  gates  of  Dublin.  Cromwell  now 
desired  to  colonise  the  country  with  English.  The  lands 
of  three  provinces,  Ulster,  Leinster  and  Munster, 
were  confiscated  and  divided  between  the  Puritan 
soldiers  and  the  "  undertakers  "  who  had  advanced  to 
the  Parliament  the  funds  required  for  the  expedition. 
The  remaining  province,  Connacht,  was  given  over  to  the 
remnants  of  the  old  population,  who  were,  so  to  speak, 
penned  into  it.      Death  was  to  be  the  portion  of  every 

8  These  are  Sir  William  Petty's  figures  (Lecky.o/?.  cit.  IL,  172). 

9  Sir  William  Petty  puts  the  figures  at  6,000.  Others  have  put  it 
as  high  as  100,000,  but  this  latter  figure  is  an  obvious  exaggeration. 
Cf.  O'Connell,  A  Memoir  of  Ireland.      Chap.  III. 


32  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

Irishman   found   east   of   the   Shannon.       "  To   Hell   or 
Connacht  !  "  was  the  law  and  the  policy  of  Cromwell. 

Never  has  a  more  savage  design  been  put  into  execution, 
at  any  rate  in  modern  times,  than  this  project  of  destroying 
a  whole  nation  and  planting  another  in  its  place.  Yet, 
even  Cromwell  did  not  dare  to  complete  the  work,  and 
for  this  he  has  been  censured  by  Froude  and  other  writers. 
The  Irish  race  was  not  entirely  extinguished,  and  Irishmen 
continued  to  exist  not  merely  in  Connacht  but  throughout 
the  whole  island.  The  need  for  manual  labour  caused 
the  new  colonists  to  preserve  the  former  inhabitants  "  as 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water,"  if  nothing  better. 
Ireland  was  so  far  from  becoming  English  that  less  than 
half  a  century  later  she  was  again  strong  enough  to  join 
battle  with  the  English;  once  again,  strange  though  it 
seem,  in  the  cause  of  the  Stuarts.  Yet  it  was  Cromwell 
who  brought  modern  Ireland  into  being  and  fashioned  it 
into  what  it  is  ;  and  it  is  he  who  is  ultimately  responsible 
for  all  its  troubles.  Any  inquiry  into  the  Irish  question 
must  begin  by  a  consideration  of  his  measures,  for  even 
the  Jacobite  reaction  interfered  little  with  his  handiwork. 
When  Charles  II.  was  restored  in  England  he  granted  a 
general  confirmation  of  the  "  settlement,"  although  in 
truth  Cromwell's  "  planters  "  had  turned  out  no  better 
than  those  of  Elizabeth  and  James  I.  Charles  also 
maintained  the  laws  by  which  the  Catholic  religion  was 
proscribed,  and  it  was  in  his  reign  that  Archbishop 
Talbot  of  Malahide  was  imprisoned  in  Dublin  Castle,  where 
he  died,  and  that  the  Venerable  Oliver  Plunket,  Archbishop 
of  Armagh,  was  dragged  before  a  mock  tribunal  in  London 
by  which  he  was  condemned  to  death,  and  suffered 
martyrdom.  But  when  the  second  revolution  broke  out 
in  England,  James  IL,  being  in  sore  need  of  the  assistance 
of  the  Irish,  set  himself  to  natter  the  hopes  of  Catholics, 
and  made  promises  of  restoration  to  those  whose  lands 
had  been  confiscated.  Hence,  when  he  was  driven  out 
of  England  all  the  "  papists  "  in  Ireland  rose  in  his  favour, 
or  rather  rose  against  the  English.      An  Irish  Catholic 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  33 

Parliament  was  assembled,  which  proclaimed  religious 
liberty  for  all  men  in  1689,  and  set  itself  to  restore  Irish 
rights  by  measures  of  violence,  which,  however,  were  not 
in  all  cases  without  justification.10  What  followed  is 
matter  of  history  ;  William's  landing  in  Ireland  ;  James's 
flight  to  the  Boyne  ;  the  brave  stand  of  the  Protestants 
at  Deny  ;  the  splendid  defence  of  Limerick  by  the 
Catholics.  A  treaty  of  peace  was  signed  at  Limerick  in 
1691,  but  the  war  had  the  same  fatal  issue  as  all  other 
Irish  insurrections  ;  a  million  acres  were  confiscated  by 
William,  and  planted  anew  with  Englishmen  and 
Protestants.  This  was  the  last  of  the  long  series  of 
English  "  Plantations  "  in  Ireland. 

What  then  was  the  final  outcome  of  all  these  insurrec- 
tions, of  that  cruel  era  of  conquest  which  began  with  the 
first  of  the  Tudors  and  ended  only  with  the  reign  of  the 
last  Stuart,  a  period  in  which  plantations,  wars  and 
massacres,  followed  one  the  other  with  a  dire  monotony 
unparalleled  in  modern  history  ?  There  resulted  from 
them  not  a  single  and  united  Irish  nation,  but  rather 
two  hostile  Irelands,  the  one  superimposed  on  the  other, 
such  as  we  find  to-day.  But  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  two  nations  was  no  longer  one  of  race  ;  the 
division  was  a  political,  a  religious,  and  a  social  one.  On 
the  one  side  were  the  Protestants,  of  Scotch  or  English 
descent,  the  last  conquistadores  of  Ireland,  the  men  who 
had  benefited  by  the  last  plantations,  or  those  who  had 
succeeded  to  their  rights.  All  the  land,  all  the  wealth, 
and  all  the  political  power  in  the  country  were  in  their 
hands.  Their  Church  was  the  State  Church.  They 
constituted  the  English  "colony,"  the  Ascendancy,  the 
Anglo-Saxon  Hegemony  or  Aristocracy  of  Ireland.  On  the 
other  side  was  the  mingled  mass  of  the  whole  former 
Catholic  population  of  Ireland — Irish,  Anglo-Irish, 
English — now  brought  together  and  made  one  by  misery 

10  Macaulay's  judgment  upon  the  Parliament  of  1689  is  not  impartial. 
See  Lecky's  more  moderate  view  (op.  cit.  IL,  183-196).  The  Act  of 
Attainder  against  the  Orangemen  bears  a  curious  resemblance  to  the 
Decrees  of  the  Convention  against  Emigres. 

D 


34  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

and  persecution.  Most  of  them  had  been  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  helots.  Some  even  worked  as  tenant-farmers 
the  land  once  owned  by  their  ancestors.11  The  "  common 
enemy  "  was  the  designation  usually  applied  to  them. 
Two  centuries  of  massacre  and  persecution  had  planted 
ineradicably  in  their  hearts  an  undying  hatred  of 
England.12 

V. — The  Eighteenth  Century  :     The  Penal  Laws.1 

Out  of  these  two  Irelands,  England,  in  the  course  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  could  have,  and  ought  to  have,  made 
one  united  Ireland.  The  country  was  exhausted,  the 
English  conquest  firmly  established.  The  Jacobite  move- 
ments of  the  eighteenth  century  did  not  affect  Ireland. 
Lord  Chesterfield  might  well  say  that  the  only  "  papist 
danger  "  he  knew  of  was  the  beauty  of  Miss  Ambrose,  a 
reigning  belle  of  the  time  in  Dublin. 

"  The  nation,"  says  Lecky,2  "  was  as  passive  as  clay  in 
the  hands  of  the  potter  "  .  .  .  "  No  country,"  he  tells  us 
later,  "  ever  exercised  a  more  complete  control  over  the 
destinies  of  another  than  did  England  over  those  of  Ireland 
for  three-quarters  of  a  century  after  the  Revolution." 

11  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  205. 

12  lb.,  IL,  199.  The  total  population  of  Ireland  was  very  much 
reduced  after  Cromwellian  times.  Sir  William  Petty  estimated  it  in 
1672  at  but  1,100,000  souls.  Afterwards  it  rapidly  increased.  Petty, 
in  the  1 7th  century,  estimated  the  proportion  of  Protestants  to  Catholics 
at  3  :  8  ;  Coghill,  in  1733,  at  1  :  3  ;  Primate  Boulter,  about  the  same 
time,  at  1  :  5.      (Cf.  Lecky,  op.  cit'yll.,  255). 

1  See  especially  for  this  period  the  works  of  Swift,  Berkeley,  Burke, 
Arthur  Young,  and  lives  and  speeches  of  Grattan  and  Flood,  the  letters 
of  Primate  Boulter  and  Archbishop  Synge.  Sir  J.  Barrington's  Rise 
and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation,  1833.  Sir  G.  Lewis,  Irish  Disturbances, 
London,  1836.  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  edited  by  James  Bryce, 
1888.  Froude,  The  English  in  Ireland  in  the  iSth  Century,  London, 
1872,  and  The  Two  Chiefs  of  Dunboy.  Lecky,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion 
in  Ireland.  2nd  edition,  1871,  and  3rd  edition,  1903  (it  is  interesting 
to  compare  the  two  editions,  which  exhibit  striking  differences).  G. 
De  Beaumont  in  the  first  volume  of  Ireland  :  Social,  Political,  and 
Religious  (p.  75  to  131)  gives  a  very  clear  exposition  of  the  Penal  Laws 
and  their  consequences.  Cf.  in  regard  to  the  Penal  Laws  the  laments 
of  the  Irish  poet,  O'Rahilly,  whose  works  have  been  lately  edited  by 
Fr.  Dineen  (3rd  vol.  of  the  Irish  Texts  Society,  London,  1900). 

2  Op.  cit.  IL,  256 — As  to  Chesterfield's  mat,  see  ib.,  278. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  35 

Thus  the  union  of  the  two  peoples,  the  two  nations, 
that  then  existed  in  Ireland,  would  not  have  been 
difficult  to  accomplish  ;  and  if  left  to  themselves,  the 
Irish  would,  no  doubt,  soon  have  assimilated  the  new 
rulers,  as  they  had  assimilated  the  old.  Even  the 
"  planters  "  of  Elizabeth's  time  had  already  become  Irish 
in  large  part.  Many  of  them  had  assisted  in  stirring  up 
the  insurrection  of  164 1.  The  grandson  of  Spenser,  the 
poet,  had  himself  been  driven  out  of  his  land  by 
Cromwell's  army,  as  an  Irish  papist.  We  have  it  on  the 
word  of  a  contemporary  that  forty  years  after  Cromwell's 
time,  many  of  the  children  of  the  Protector's  soldiers 
could  not  speak  a  word  of  English  ;  and  seven  years  after 
the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  many  of  William  III.'s  soldiers 
had  already  become  Catholics.  "  The  conquest  of  Ireland 
by  the  Puritan  soldiers  of  Cromwell,"  observes  Lecky, 
"  was  hardly  more  signal  than  the  conquest  of  these 
soldiers  by  the  invincible  Catholicism  of  the  Irish 
women. "3  To  fashion  these  two  Ir elands  into  one  and 
then  to  civilise  and  develop  this  new  Ireland,  such  was 
the  task  that  lay  before  the  English  government.  But 
this  task  it  consistently  refused  to  perform,  and  preferred 
instead  to  widen  the  chasm  between  the  two  nationalities, 
using  the  one  to  keep  down  the  other,  whilst  in  reality 
it  oppressed  and  exploited  both,  till  at  last,  at  the  close 
of  the  century,  the  two  united  in  a  common  insurrection 
against  English  rule. 

Ireland's  great  misfortune  at  this  period  was  that  it 
had  two  masters,  first  England,  and  secondly,  the  English 
"  garrison  "  in  Ireland,  the  English  Government  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  Protestants  of  Ireland  on  the  other. 
From  a  political  point  of  view,  the  regime  thus  imposed 
upon  the  country  was  the  worst  that  could  possibly  be 
imagined  ;  namely,  a  combination  of  the  government 
peculiar  to  a  colony,  or  dependency,  with  that  of  a  ruling 
caste,  which,  though  all-powerful  in  Ireland,  was  yet  not 

3  Op.  cit.   IL,  371.     Cf.    Modern   Ireland,   by  Dr.  George    Sigerson. 
London,  372,  1868,  p.  382  to  383. 


36  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

itself  independent. 4  Had  England  governed  Ireland 
directly  mere  self-interest  must  have  made  it  protect  the 
weak  against  the  strong.  Had  it,  on  the  other  hand, 
handed  over  all  power  to  the  ruling  caste,  self-interest 
would  have  induced  that  caste  to  promote  efficient 
government.  But,  as  it  was,  Ireland  was  controlled  by 
the  "  garrison,"  and  the  "  garrison  "  was  ruled  by 
England,  with  the  result  that  all  sense  of  responsibility, 
all  zeal  for  the  common  interest,  entirely  disappeared. 

"  Protestant  Ireland,"  as  Grattan  put  it,  "  knelt  to 
England  on  the  necks  of  her  countrymen."  In  one  aspect 
they  were  tyrants,  in  another  they  were  slaves.  They 
were  at  once  oppressors  and  oppressed.  There  was  a  sort 
of  "  deal  "  between  them  and  the  English  Government, 
by  which  the  public  welfare  was  to  be  sacrificed  to  the 
English  Government,  the  Irish  Catholics  to  the 
"  garrison. "5  We  must  then  consider  this  two-fold 
oppression,  that  of  Ireland  as  a  whole  by  England  on  the 
one  hand,  and  that  of  the  Irish  Catholics  by  the 
"  garrison  "  of  English  Protestants  on  the  other. 

For  Irish  Catholics,  the  eighteenth  century  was  the 
epoch  of  persecution  under  forms  of  law.  "  Popery  " 
had  lived  through  the  bloody  persecutions  of  former 
times  ;  it  was  now  thought  to  be  a  simpler  and  a  surer 
method  to  put  it  down  by  a  system  of  penal  enactments. 
Liberty  of  conscience  had  indeed  been  guaranteed  to 
Catholics  by  the  Treaty  of  Limerick.  But  the  obstacle 
did  not  prove  a  serious  one.  The  treaty  was  torn  up, 
and  from  1695  to  1709  the  Protestant  Parliament  of 
Ireland  passed  a  series  of  penal  laws,  which,  in  the  words 
of  Edmund  Burke,  "  were  not  the  effect  of  their  fears 
but  of  their  security."6  The  purpose  of  this  legislation 
was  to  crush  Catholicism  and  Irish  Catholics  by  legal 
means  in  such  a  way  that  there  might  never  afterwards 
be  anything  to  fear  from  them. 

4  Two  Centuries  of  Irish  History,  p.  xxi. 

5  G.  De  Beaumont,  op.  cit.  I.,  81,  et  seq. 

6  Letters  to  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  37 

Never  was  there  a  system  so  cunningly  devised  or 
worked  out  in  such  detail  as  this  famous  "  Penal  Code." 
For  two  centuries  it  served  to  supply  fanatical  persecutors 
in  every  land  with  instruments  of  torture  ready  to  hand. 
"  It  would  not  be  difficult,"  said  Goldwin  Smith,7  "  to 
point  to  persecuting  laws  more  sanguinary  than  these 

But  it  would  be  difficult  to  point  to  any  more 

insulting  to  the  best  feelings  of  man  or  more  degrading 
to  religion."  Nothing  was  left  undone.  Everything  was 
foreseen  with  cold-blooded  and  calculating  ingenuity. 
Violence  was  united  to  hypocrisy,  perfidy  to  corruption, 
and  the  highest  honours  and  rewards  were  reserved  for 
the  apostate  and  the  informer.  It  is  "  vicious  perfec- 
tion."8 

Catholic  worship  was  tolerated,  but  only  on  sufferance. 
All  public  ceremonies  and  all  pilgrimages  were  prohibited  ; 
even  bells  and  crosses  were  interdicted.  The  ordination 
of  any  new  clergymen  was  forbidden  by  law  ;  decree  of 
banishment  was  passed  against  all  bishops  and  members 
of  religious  orders,  and  death  was  to  be  their  punishment 
in  case  they  returned  to  Ireland.  Secular  priests  could 
not  exercise  their  office  under  pain  of  deportation,  until 
they  had  registered  themselves  and  taken,  not  merely  an 
oath  of  allegiance,  but  an  oath  of  abjuration,  which  their 
Church  forbade  them  to  take.  Every  Papist  was  ordered, 
under  pain  of  fine,  to  inform  against  his  clergyman.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  public  pension  was  assigned  by  the  State 
to  every  priest  who  should  turn  Protestant.  9  That  is 
how  the  clergy  were  dealt  with.  As  for  the  Catholic 
laity,  they  were  deprived  of  all  political  rights  whatever. 
"  The  law  does  not  suppose  any  such  person  to  exist  as 
an  Irish  Roman  Catholic,"  said  a  Lord  Chancellor  upon 
one  occasion.      They  were  forbidden  to  act  as  teachers 

7  Irish  History  and  Irish  Character,  p.  i  27. 

8  Works  II.,  11  ;    III.,  313  ;    VI.,  18. 

9  See  Lecky  (op.  cit.,  I.,  296  and  297)  as  to  the  proposed  law  for 
inflicting  the  punishment  of  castration  upon  unregistered  priests.  A 
Bill  to  this  effect  was  drawn  up  by  the  Irish  Privy  Council,  but  the 
English  Government  refused  to  sanction  it. 


38  :     HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

under  pain  of  banishment,  and  under  pain  of  death  in 
case  they  returned  from  banishment.  They  were  forbidden 
to  have  their  children  educated,  except  by  Protestants, 
or  to  have  them  educated  abroad.  They  were  debarred 
from  obtaining  any  public  employment  or  practising  any 
liberal  profession  except  that  of  medicine.  They  could 
not  hold  property  in  land,  or  take  land  on  lease  for  a 
longer  term  than  thirty  years,  and  then  only  on  the 
harshest  conditions.  If  they  engaged  in  trade  or  industry, 
they  had  to  pay  a  special  tax  and  could  not  employ 
more  than  two  apprentices.  They  were  forbidden  to 
carry  arms  or  to  own  a  horse  of  greater  value  than  £5. 
They  could  not  act  as  guardians  of  their  own  children, 
nor  marry  a  Protestant  wife,  nor  inherit  an  estate  from  a 
Protestant  relative.  Moreover,  the  property  of  a  Catholic 
was  equally  divided  between  his  children  on  his  death,  the 
law  of  primogeniture  being  confined  to  Protestants.  The 
object  of  this  last  provision  was,  of  course,  to  secure  that 
if  a  Catholic  chanced  to  make  a  fortune  it  should  soon 
be  dissipated. 

The  trade  of  the  informer  was  encouraged  by  ample 
rewards  ;  £20  for  an  unregistered  priest,  £50  for  a  bishop. 
"  Priest-hunting  "  was  quite  a  lucrative  profession.  But 
if  a  Catholic  became  a  Protestant  all  was  changed.  Instead 
of  a  slave  he  had  become  a  master,  and  the  law  heaped 
favours  upon  him.  The  Lord  Chancellor  saw  to  it  that 
he  had  a  preferential  claim  to  succeed  to  the  estate  of 
his  parents,  and  if  he  were  the  eldest  of  several  children 
he  at  once  acquired  the  sole  legal  ownership  of  all  the 
family  property,  his  parents  retaining  merely  a  life-estate. 
Moreover,  with  a  view  to  making  converts  to  Protestantism, 
whilst  Catholics  were  forbidden  to  engage  in  educational 
pursuits,  the  country  was  studded  over  with  Protestant 
schools,  where  the  children  of  Papists  could  receive  free 
tuition. 

"  There  was  thus  established,"  in  the  oft-quoted  words 
of  Burke,™  "  a  complete  system  full  of  coherence  and 

10  Letters  to  Sir  H.  Langrishe,  Works  III.,  343. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  39 

consistency,  well  digested  and  composed  in  all  its  parts 

a  machine  of  wise  and  elaborate  contrivance  ; 

and  as  well  fitted  for  the  oppression,  impoverishment  and 
degradation  of  a  people,  and  the  debasement  in  them  of 
human  nature  itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the  perverted 
ingenuity  of  man."  It  was  not  merely  the  persecution 
of  a  religion,  it  was  an  attempt  to  degrade  and  demoralise 
a  whole  nation.11  It  was  sought  at  any  cost  to  keep 
Papists  in  misery,  ignorance  and  slavery,  and  this  with 
no  other  purpose  save  to  assure  the  Protestant  ascendancy 
in  Ireland.  The  "  planters  "  who  had  come  to  Ireland 
in  the  time  of  Cromwell  or  William  III.  knew  how 
precarious  was  their  title  to  the  land,  and  they  thus 
sought  to  adopt  means  that  could  not  fail  to  assure  their 
position. 

"  Pure  religious  fanaticism,"  writes  Lecky,12  "  does  not 
indeed  appear  ever  to  have  played  a  dominant  part  in 
this  legislation.  The  object  of  the  Penal  Laws,  even  in 
the  worst  period,  was  much  less  to  produce  a  change  of 
religion  than  to  secure  property  and  power  by  reducing 
to  complete  impotence  those  who  had  formerly  possessed 
them."  Fanaticism,  as  PerraudJ3  remarks,  served  merely 
as  cloak  to  cupidity,  a  circumstance  which  hardly  tended 
to  make  it  less  hateful. 

Such  were  the  famous  Penal  Laws,  destined  to  exercise 
so  disastrous  and  so  lasting  an  influence  upon  the  future 
of  Ireland.  Dr.  Johnson,  a  strong  Tory,  said  of  them — r4 
"  There  is  no  instance  even  in  the  ten  persecutions  of  such 
severity  as  that  which  the  Protestants  of  Ireland  have 
exercised  against  the  Catholics."  These  laws  remained  in 
full  force  for  half  a  century  ;  but  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century  their  severity  was  relaxed.  They  had 
already  produced  the  result  that  was  aimed  at.  Nothing 
more  could  be  expected  from  them.     Not  that  they  had 

11  Lecky  op.  cit.  I.,  283. 

12  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland.     3rd  edition,  I.,  19. 

*3  Op.  cit.  IL,  463.      Cf.  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  286.      De  Beaumont, 
op  cit,  I.,  120.      Arthur  Young,  Tour  in  Ireland,  II.,  141. 
*4  Lecky,  op.  cit.  I.,  302. 


40  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

succeeded  in  destroying  Catholicism.  Priests  living  in 
concealment,  and  perpetually  at  the  mercy  of  informers, 
had  continued  to  celebrate  the  rites  of  the  proscribed 
religion  in  undiscovered  "  mass-houses."  Nor  had  Catholic 
education  been  stamped  out.  Small  groups  of  Catholic 
children  continued  to  receive  instruction  contrary  to  law 
in  "  hedge-schools,"  and  always  at  the  risk  of  prosecution. 
"  The  passion  for  knowledge,"  says  Lecky,^  "  among  the 
Irish  poor  was  extremely  strong,  and  the  zeal  with  which 
they  maintained  their  hedge  schools  under  the  pressure 
of  abject  poverty,  and  in  the  face  of  the  prohibitions  of 
the  penal  code,  is  one  of  the  most  honourable  features  in 
their  history."  It  is  true  indeed  that,  as  apostacy  was  a 
condition  precedent  to  all  worldly  success,  a  certain 
number  of  Papists  joined  the  Anglican  Church.  Yet  even 
in  this  direction  the  success  attained  was  trifling.  It  is 
estimated  that  from  1703  to  1738  only  1,000  Catholics 
embraced  the  Protestant  religion.  The  Anglican  Primate 
Archbishop  Boulter  tells  us  that  in  the  time  of  direst 
persecution  an  appreciably  greater  number  of  Protestants 
turned  Catholic,  than  Catholics  Protestant.16 

What  then,  it  may  be  asked,  was  the  result  of  the 
Penal  Laws  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  found  in  the  stream 
of  exiles  whom  they  hunted  from  Ireland,  and  in  the 
condition  to  which  they  reduced  those  of  their  victims 
who  remained  in  Ireland. 

Emigration  robbed  the  country  of  the  best  elements  of 
her  population,  and,  as  in  Cromwell's  time,  soldiers,  gentry, 
and  men  of  the  middle  classes  alike  fled  from  persecution. 
Each  year  saw  a  flight  of  the  "  wild  geese,"  as  they  were 
called,  who  followed  the  example  of  the  garrison  of 
Limerick,  which  to  the  number  of  14,000  men  had  enlisted 
in  the  French  army  immediately  after  the  signing  of  the 
Treaty.  The  armies  of  all  the  Catholic  powers  soon 
contained  large  contingents  of  Irishmen.    Irishmen  became 

l5  Op.  cit.  IL,  202. 

1(5  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,   289  to  290 — as  to  Primate  Boulter's  remark 
see  Matthew  Arnold,  Irish  Essays,  p.  70. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  41 

Grandees  of  Spain  and  Magnates  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire.  Nugent,  Brown,  and  Lacy  attained  distinction 
in  the  service  of  Maria-Theresa.  The  O'Neills  and 
O'Donnells  found  asylum  in  Spain.  A  Wall  became 
Prime  Minister,  an  O'Mahony  an  Ambassador  of  that 
country.  But  France,  beyond  all  other  countries,  was  a 
second  fatherland  to  the  Irish  exiles,  and  men  like 
Tyrconnell,  Dillon,  and  Lally,  became  famous  in  her 
service.  A  historian  (though  his  statement  is  plainly 
exaggerated)  has  reckoned  at  450,000  the  number  of 
Irish  who  perished  in  French  armies  from  1691  to  I745-1? 
Who  has  not  heard  of  the  gloty  of  the  "  Irish  Brigade," 
which  for  a  whole  century  carried  on  to  every  French 
battlefield  its  banner  with  the  brave  motto,  "  Semper  et 
Ubique  Fidèles,"  struck  the  decisive  blow,  under  Clare,  at 
Fontenoy,  and  on  the  evening  of  Dettingen  wrung  from 
King  George  II.  the  celebrated  imprecation,  "  God  curse 
the  laws  that  made  these  men  my  enemies  "  ?l8 

But  in  their  own  country  these  same  laws  transformed 
the  Catholics  into  a  race  of  slaves.  Weakened  by 
massacres  and  emigration,  the  nation  stooped  unresistingly 
beneath  the  burden  of  oppression.  The  mass  of  the 
population  was  reduced  to  the  condition  of  serfs,  of 
pariahs,  and  Ireland,  deprived  of  its  natural  leaders  by 
the  disappearance  of  almost  all  the  old  families,  ceased 
to  be  a  nation,  and  became  instead  an  inert  mass  of 
exhausted  and  hopeless  humanity.  There  was  an  advance, 
it  may  be,  in  private  morality  and  individual  piety,  but 
will  and  character  grew  weak  in  the  course  of  the  unending 
struggle.      Now  that  they  had  sunk  to  the  condition  of 

x7  MacGeoghegan,  Histoire  d'Irlande,  Paris,  1758  to  1763,  III.,  754. 
Cf.  Lecky  op.  cit.  IL,  262.  Cf.  O'Callaghan,  History  of  the  Irish  Brigade, 
1851. 

18  It  shows  the  dreadful  results  of  persecution  that  whilst  Irish 
soldiers  and  generals  were  seeking  refuge  in  France,  French  Protestants 
came  to  seek  a  home  in  Ireland.  William  III.  had  a  regiment  of  French 
Protestants  at  the  Boyne  to  whom  he  said  "  Messieurs,  vos  persécuteurs 
sont  devant  vous."  It  was  a  French  Protestant  named  Crommelin 
who  imported  the  industry  of  weaving  into  Ireland.  French  names, 
such  as  Le  Fanu,  La  Touche,  Saurin,  Lefroy,  are  still  common  in 
Ireland. 


42  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

slaves  the  vices  of  slavery  took  possession  of  the  Irish, 
idleness  and  servility,  falsehood  and  contempt  for  law. 
Despised  by  the  Protestants,  they  learnt  to  despise 
themselves,  and  the  feeling  of  social  inferiority  burnt  into 
their  souls.  They  bent  under  the  yoke  of  the  landlords, 
who,  in  their  threefold  capacity  of  landlords,  Protestants, 
and  magistrates,  treated  the  Irish,  as  Lord  Chesterfield 
put  it,  "  worse  than  negroes."10-  In  such  conditions 
poverty  rapidly  increased,  till  it  became  appalling.  "  We 
found  the  people  heretics  and  idolators,"  said  Burke.20 
"  We  have,  by  way  of  improving  their  condition,  rendered 
them  slaves  and  beggars  ;  they  remain  in  all  the 
misfortune  of  their  old  errors,  and  all  the  superadded 
misery  of  their  recent  punishment." 

In  1727  Swift  declares  that  the  peasants  of  Ireland 
"  live  worse  than  English  beggars."21  Two  years  later 
he  published  his  famous  Modest  Proposal.  In  the 
course  of  twenty  years  there  were  no  less  than  three  or 
four  great  famines.  400,000  persons  perished  in  that  of 
the  year  1740-41,  according  to  a  contemporary.  In  1741 
one-third  of  the  cottiers  in  Munster  died  of  famine  or 
fever.22  At  length  the  poverty  of  the  people  and  the 
oppression  from  which  they  suffered  gave  birth  to 
outrages  and  popular  risings  directed  against  "  rent  "  and 
"  tithes,"  against  the  exactions  of  the  landlords  and  of 
the  Protestant  clergy.  From  1760  onwards  the  Whiteboys 
or  as  they  were  called  in  some  places,  Levellers,  Houghers5 
Oakboys  or  Steelboys,  spread  terror  through  the  country. 
This  was  the  first  purely  agrarian  movement  in  Ireland. 
Papists  were  hanged  and  transported  wholesale. 
Repressive  laws  of  terrible  severity  were  enacted  and 
applied   with   severity   yet   more   terrible   by   the   Irish 

19  Lecky,  op.  cit.  II.,  291. 

20  Quoted  by  Matthew  Arnold,  Irish  Essays,  p.  15.  The  population 
increased,  it  is  true.for  the  poverty  was  too  great  to  act  as  any  restraint. 
Cf.  Lecky,  op.  cit.  II.,  222. 

21  A  Short  View  of  the  State  of  Ireland. 

22  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  217  to  220. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  43 

judges.    But,  in  the  long  run,  judges  and  hangmen  proved 
powerless  to  cope  with  this  jacquerie. 

There  seems  to  be  a  retributive  principle  in  nature 
which  brings  it  to  pass  that  the  persecutor  is  commonly 
more  degraded  than  his  victim.  A  Protestant  writer23 
tells  us  that  the  net  effect  of  the  Penal  Laws  upon 
Protestant  Ireland  was  to  taint  the  whole  body  politic 
with  profound  and  widespread  corruption.  The  morals 
of  that  privileged  class,  the  "  garrison,"  were,  in  truth, 
not  long  in  becoming  corrupted.  Luxury  brought 
with  it  a  certain  development  of  the  arts,  but  a  much 
greater  development  of  gaming,  licentiousness,  and 
extravagance. .  The  Squires  and  Squireens  were  needy, 
harsh,  quarrelsome  and  dissipated,  and  they  were  often 
"  absentees, "24  who  handed  over  their  rights  to  middlemen 
of  low  character.  Lord  Chesterfield  declared  towards  the 
middle  of  the  century  that  if  as  many  landlords  had  been 
killed  by  the  troops  as  Whiteboys,  it  would  have  been 
better  for  the  public  peace.  25  Froude's  description  of  the 
abandoned  lives  of  the  smaller  gentry  of  the  period26  is 
well  worth  reading  :  "  The  Irish  blackguard,  the  racing, 
drinking,  duelling,  swearing  squireen,  the  tyrant  of  the 
poor,  the  shame  and  scandal  of  the  order  to  which  he 
affected  to  belong."  Justice  itself  was  corrupted  at  the 
fountain-head,  for  there  was  no  habeas  corpus  in  Ireland, 
and  the  judges  and  lawyers  were  mere  Castle-hacks. 
"  The  poor,"  as  Grattan  said,  "  were  struck  out  of  the 
protection  of  the  law,  the  rich  out  of  its  penalties."  The 
Established  Church,  an  authority  rather  temporal  than 
spiritual,  shared  in  all  the  abuses  of  the  period.  It 
was,  in  Macaulay's  phrase,  "  a  church  that  filled  the 
rich  with  good  things  and  sent  the  hungry  empty  away." 

23  O'Connor  Morris,  Ireland,  1494-1868.  Cambridge,  1898,  p.  410. 

24  Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  239. 

25  Stanhope,  History  of  England,  V.,  123. 

2b  The  English  in  Ireland,  I.,  279,  et  seq.  Arthur  Young  spoke  of 
them  as  "  the  vermin  of  the  country."  See  his  account  of  their  lives 
in  his  Tour  in  Ireland  (II.,,  50  et  seq.).  See  also  the  famous  pamphlets 
of  Swift. 


44  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

"  A  true  Irish  Bishop,"  declared  Archbishop  Bolton,  "  has 
nothing  more  to  do  than  to  eat,  drink,  grow  rich,  fat, 
and  die."27  Moreover,  the  Protestants  were  divided 
against  themselves.  The  Presbyterians  of  the  North  had 
greatly  increased  in  numbers,  as  the  result  of  a  large 
Scotch  immigration  into  Ulster  after  the  Revolution.  But 
the  Episcopalians  secured  their  exclusion  from  public 
office  and  emoluments.  They  were  compelled  to  pay 
tithes  to  the  Established  Church,  and  Presbyterian 
marriages  were  declared  null  and  void. 
'  A  society  which  had  fallen  into  such  a  state  of 
demoralisation  was  not  fit  to  enjoy  the  benefits  of  liberty, 
and  we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  that  the  tyranny 
exercised  over  Catholics  by  Irish  Protestants  had  a 
counterpart  in  the  tyranny  exercised  over  Irish  Protestants 
in  the  eighteenth  century  by  the  Protestants  of  England. 
This  tyranny  was  twofold,  being  in  part  legislative,  and 
in  part  economic.  The  Irish  Parliament — Catholics  were 
not  eligible  to  sit  as  members  of  it  or  even  to  vote  at 
parliamentary  elections — was  made  subordinate  to  the 
English  Parliament  and  deprived  of  all  real  authority  and 
initiative.  It  was  a  mere  shadow,  a  caricature  of  a 
parliament,  which  Swift  never  wearied  of  ridiculing.28 
Political  subjection,  as  might  be  expected,  resulted  in 
commercial  and  industrial  subjection.  This  had  its  origin 
in  Henry  VIII. 's  time,  but  more  especially  in  Cromwell's. 
It  was  the  theory  in  those  days  that  a  colony  or  dependency 
existed  only  for  the  profit  and  advantage  of  the  mother- 
country,  and  by  a  system  of  carefully  marshalled  laws, 
passed  between  1663  and  1669,  England  succeeded  in 
completely  ruining  Irish  industry  and  Irish  trade.  By 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  work  had 
been  accomplished  and  Swift,  when  he  heard  the  customary 
toast  of  "  Irish  Manufactures,"  proposed,  was  wont  to 
declare  :   "  I  drink  no  memories  !  "29     It  was,  of  course, 

27  O'Connor  Morris,  op.  cit.  IL,  215.     (Cf.  Lecky,  op.  cit.  226  to  236) 

28  See,  for  instance,  Swift's  The  Legion  Club. 

29  Brodrick,  Political  Studies,  London,  1879,  p.  343. 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  45 

the  Protestants  who  suffered  most  by  this  economic 
ruin,  since  Catholics  were  excluded  from  trade  and  industry 
by  the  Penal  Laws.  The  effects  were  soon  felt,  and, 
during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  there  was 
a  wholesale  emigration  of  Presbyterians  from  Ulster. 
Most  of  them  settled  in  America,  where  they  became  the 
bitterest  enemies  of  England.  200,000  Presbyterians  left 
the  country  in  this  way  in  the  course  of  fifty  years. 3o 

The  Protestants  of  Ireland  endured  this  two-fold  slavery 
with  "  abject  servility,"  as  an  Irish  writer  puts  it.3i  But 
it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  there  were  among  them  a  few 
men  of  sufficiently  independent  spirit  to  protest  against 
British  tyranny  and  assert  the  rights  of  Ireland  against 
the  oppressor.  As  early  as  the  year  1698  an  Irish 
gentleman,  named  William  Molyneux,  a  friend  of  Locke, 
had  written  a  book,  proving  the  Independence  of  the 
Irish  Parliament  upon  historical  grounds.32  This  work 
the  Parliament  of  England  at  once  directed  to  be  burned 
by  the  common  hangman.  Some  time  later  Jonathan 
Swift  published  his  Pamphlet  on  Manufactures  (1720), 
his  Views  on  Ireland  and  his  famous  Drapier' s  Letters 
(1723),  in  which  he  denounced  the  oppression  and  abuses 
of  the  English  Government,  and  proclaimed  the  wrongs 
of  the  colonists,  setting  out  those  of  the  Catholics  to 
complete  the  picture. 33  At  once  the  Dean  became  the 
most  popular  man  in  Dublin,  though  he  had  never 
concealed  his  contempt  for  Papists  and  his  dislike  for 
Ireland,  which  he  looked  upon  as  a  place  of  exile.  When 
he  was  threatened  with  arrest  the  populace  of  the 
"  Liberties"  rose  in  a  body  to  protect  him,  as  it  rose  a 
century  later  to  protect  O'Connell.  Soon  afterwards 
Bishop  Berkeley,  the  philosopher,  aroused  a  new  public 
spirit  with  his  Querist,  and  awakened  interest  in  the 
condition  of  the  Catholics.     At  last,  in  the  latter  half  of 

3°  Lecky,  op.  cit.  II.,  260  to  262. 

31  Sir  C.  Gavan  Duffy,  Bird's-eye  View  of  Irish  History. 

32  The  Case  of  Ireland  Stated,  1698. 

33  J.    Flack,    Swift,  son    action    politique  en    Irlande,  Paris,    1886, 


46  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

the  century,  the  Penal  Laws  were  relaxed,  and  there 
sprang  up  in  the  colony  an  Irish  party  or  "  interest," 
opposed  to  the  English  party  or  "  interest."  Though  it 
failed  to  reform  those  abuses,  which  were  a  source  of 
profit  to  its  members, 34  it  made  it  its  business  to  govern 
Ireland  for  the  benefit  of  the  Irish  instead  of  conducting 
the  government  in  the  interests  of  England.  From  this 
party  came  the  Protestant  Liberals  or  Irish  "  Whigs," 
first  Flood  and  Lucas,  then  Burke,  and  above  all  Grattan. 
These  men  realised  that  Ireland  was  their  country  and 
began  to  lay  aside  hatred  of  the  Papists,  realising  that 
oppression  by  England  was  a  heavy  price  to  pay  for  the 
pleasure  of  persecuting  Catholics.  "  The  Irish  Protestant 
never  could  be  free,"  declared  Grattan,  "while  the  Irish 
Catholic  was  a  slave."  The  idea  of  Irish  nationality  and 
Irish  independence  became  popular,  alike  with  Protestant 
and  with  Catholic,  and  both  parties  were  soon  to  unite 
in  the  effort  to  secure  its  realisation. 35 

VI. — The   Irish   Revolution   and   the   Union 
(1782-1800).! 

Independence  !  It  was  the  success  of  the  American 
revolution  that  brought  about  the  Independence  of  Ireland, 
and  it  was  the  reaction  from  the  French  revolution,  or 
rather  from  its  excesses,  that  was  destined  to  destroy 
that  independence.  The  events  that  illuminate  the  pages 
of  Irish  History  during  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth 
century  are  well  known.  When  in  1776  war  broke  out 
between  England  and  her  American  colonies,  Ireland, 
being  without  means  of  defence,  raised  a  militia  of  40,000 

34  They  were  called  "  Undertakers  "  (i.e.,  of  the  public  service). 

35  The  question  was,  said  Grattan,  whether  they  were  to  be  an 
English  colon}'  or  an  Irish  nation. 

1  See  especially  on  this  period,  the  lives  and  speeches  of  Flood,  Burke, 
Grattan,  Curran  and  Plunket  ;  the  Life  and  Memoirs  of  Theobald 
Wolfe  Tone  ;  the  Cornwallis,  Fitzwilliam  and  Castlereagh  Corre- 
spondence, etc.  Cf.  Madden,  Literary  Remains  of  the  United  Irish- 
men,   London,    1887-S.       Gordon,'  History   of  the   Rebellion   of    1798, 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  47 

■  -  ' 

volunteers  for  its  protection.  Soon  the  Irish  came  to 
know  their  own  power  and  saw  that  they  were  in  a  position 
to  force  England  to  yield  to  their  wishes.  The  famous 
phrase  "  England's  difficulty  is  Ireland's  opportunity  " 
received  its  first  application.  The  Irish  secured  the 
abolition  of  all  commercial  restraints  in  1779,  and  in 
1782  compelled  recognition  of  the  independence  of  the 
Irish  Parliament.  No  bond  save  that  of  the  Crown  any 
longer  united  them  to  England  ;  they  had  become  a 
sovereign  and  independent  people.  At  the  same  time,  as 
a  complement  to  the  liberty  which  had  been  regained, 
many  of  the  Penal  Laws  against  Catholics  were  repealed. 
In  1778  Catholics  once  again  acquired  the  right  to  own 
land,  and  to  inherit  according  to  the  common  law.  The 
sumptuary  laws,  and  the  laws  directed  against  the  clergy 
and  against  Catholic  education,  were  repealed  in  1782. 
In  1792  Catholics  were  admitted  to  the  Bar  and  made 
eligible  to  serve  on  juries,  and  in  1793  they, were  granted 
the  Parliamentary  franchise.  Thus  the  beginning  of 
Catholic  Emancipation  went  hand  in  hand  with  the 
political  emancipation  of  the  nation. 

A  new  era  seemed  to  have  begun  for  Ireland.  Once  the 
English  yoke  was  removed,  economic  prosperity  returned 
as  though  by  magic.  The  development  of  the  country 
made  immense  strides,  and  the  progress  of  Ireland  in  the 
last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  extraordinary. 
There  remained  one  dark  spot  in  the  picture,  the  servile 
corruption  of  the  Irish  Parliament.  It  was  elected  by 
rotten  boroughs  and  composed  exclusively  of  Protestants. 
Its  one  desire  was  to  maintain  the  privileges  of  the 
oligarchy  that  it  represented.  It  proved  a  ready 
instrument  in  the  hand  of  the  Government  and  their 

1801-1803.  Thomas  Moore,  Life  of  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  1831. 
Lecky,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland.  Maxwell,  History  of  the 
Irish  Rebellion  of  1798,  London,  1845.  Sir  Jonah  Barrington,  Historic 
Memoirs  of  Ireland,  London,  1832.  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation, 
Paris,  1833.  J.  K.  Ingram,  The  Memory  of  the  Dead  (a  fine  poem  on 
1798).  Ingram,  History  of  the  Irish  Union,  London,  1887,  Swift 
MacNeill,  The  Irish  Parliament.  London,  1885,  ;  and  How  the  Union 
was  Carried,  London,  1887. 


48  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

ambitious  lieutenant,  John  Fitzgibbon,  Lord  Clare,  who, 
when  the  Volunteers — Protestants  for  the  most  part — 
demanded  electoral  reform,  rejected  the  demand  with 
contempt.  Its  venal  tyranny  had  the  effect  of  uniting 
every  Irish  patriot  against  it. 

With  the  coming  of  the  French  Revolution,  a  spirit  of 
patriotism,    liberty    and    democracy    spread    throughout 
Ireland.     The  Volunteers  became,  under  Wolfe  Tone,  the 
"  United  Irishmen."      Presbyterian  and  Catholic  joined 
hands,  and  they  had  every  Liberal  and  every  patriot  on 
their  side.      They  proclaimed  "  the  rights  of  man,"  and 
demanded    parliamentary   reform    and    the    abolition    of 
abuses.     They  denounced  the  intrigues,  the  jobbery  and 
corruption   of   the   Government.      In   the   country   they 
revolted  against  the  tyranny  of  the  landlords  and  of  the 
Anglican  clergy.      In  Belfast,  the  more  advanced  spirits 
desired  complete  separation  from  England,  and  dreamed 
of  founding  an  Irish  Republic.    As  the  French  Revolution 
advanced  in  the  direction  of  Jacobinism,  the  sentiments 
of  the  United  Irishmen  moved  in  the  same  direction. 
But    herein    lay    the    Government's    opportunity.       The 
Protestant  Liberals,  the  middle  classes,  and  the  Catholic 
clergy,  shocked  by  the  excesses  which  they  saw  occurring 
in  France,  deserted  the  party,  and  soon,  instead  of  the 
whole  nation,  save  the  landlord  oligarchy,  the  Government 
had  only  to  deal  with  a  small  knot  of  revolutionaries, 
unsupported  by  the  inert  mass  of  the  people.     After  1793 
it  was  able  to  disband  and  disarm  the  Volunteers.    Their 
chiefs,  Wolfe  Tone  and  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald,  went  to 
seek  aid  in  France,  and  Hoche  made  a  vain  attempt  to 
land  at  Bantry  Bay.     A  short  period  of  conciliation  fol- 
lowed under  Lord  Fitzwilliam.    But  he  was  recalled,  to  the 
intense  grief  of  the  Irish,  in  1796,  and  the  party  of  coercion 
gained  the  upper  hand  in  the  "  Castle."      They  threw 
down  the  religious  question  as  an  apple  of  discord  between 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  and,  with  the  help  of  the  Orange 
Society,  which  was  just   then   founded   in   Ulster,    they 
succeeded  in  stirring  up  a  religious  war,  which  put  an 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  49 

end  to  all  spirit  of  independence  and  nationality.  To 
bring  matters  to  a  head  Fitzgibbon,  at  Pitt's  instigation, 
provoked  the  rising  of  1798,  which  Pitt  believed 
inevitable,  by  measures  of  excessive  cruelty.  They  let 
loose  "  upon  the  homes  of  the  peasantry,"  writes  Goldwin 
Smith,2  "  the  license  and  barbarity  of  an  irregular  soldiery 
more  cruel  than  a  regular  invader.  Flogging,  half-hanging, 
pitch-capping,  picketing,  went  on  over  a  large  district, 
and  the  most  barbarous  scourgings  without  trial  were 
inflicted  in  the  Riding-house  at  Dublin,  in  the  very  seat 

of    government    and    justice It    appears    not 

unlikely   that   the   peasantry might   have   been 

kept  quiet  by  measures  of  lenity  and  firmness,  and  that 
they  were  gratuitously  scourged  and  tortured  into  open 
rebellion." 

This  famous  insurrection  which  broke  out  in  1798  was 
merely  a  rising  of  peasants  maddened  by  provocation. 
The  Protestant  gentry,  well  armed  and  assisted  by  the 
English  troops,  had  small  difficulty  in  slaughtering  them. 
Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald  was  cast  into  prison,  where  he 
died  of  his  wounds.  The  insurgents  were  defeated  at 
New  Ross  and  at  Vinegar  Hill.  Humbert  defeated  the 
English  at  Castlebar,  but  capitulated  in  presence  of 
Cornwallis.  Wolfe  Tone  was  captured,  tried,  and 
condemned  to  death,  though  wearing  a  French  uniform  ; 
he  committed  suicide.  An  Orange  reign  of  terror  followed, 
"  hardly  less  atrocious,"  writes  Thorold  Rogers,  "  though 
better  concerted,  than  the  Massacres  of  September  and 
the  Fusillade  at  Lyons."  The  loyalist  faction  in  Ireland 
"  must  take  its  place  in  history,"  according  to  Goldwin 
Smith,  "  beside  Robespierre,  Couthon  and  Carrier."3 
But  the  end  sought  for  had  been  attained.  The  Irish 
people  were  once  more  crushed,   and  the  Anglo-Saxon 


2  Irish  History  and  Character,  p.   170. 

3  Op.  cit.,  p..  174.  See  the  correspondence  of  Cornwallis  (Vol.  II.). 
and  Madden's  work  on  the  United  Irishmen  for  the  story 
of  the  massacres  and  horrors  of  which  the  Irish  gentry  were 
guilty. 

E 


HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

oligarchy  was  confirmed  in  its  privileges.  England  had 
achieved  her  purpose,  and  she  laid  her  measures  to  take 
vengeance  on  the  rebellious  island,  tor  the  humiliation  of 
E782  and  the  eighteen  years  of  Irish  independence,  by 
placing  it  in  lasting  bondage  under  the  "  Act  of 
Union. '? 

The  L'nion  of  1S00  was  the  immediate  outcome  of  the 
insurrection  of  179S  as  it  was  the  less  immediate  result 
of  the  Revolution  of  1782.  The  Irish  Parliament  had 
sought  emancipation  ;  it  paid  the  penalty  of  destruction, 
and  was  merged  in  the  Parliament  of  Westminster.  A 
legislative  union  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  was 
carried  out.  and  henceforth  there  was  to  be  but  one 
United  Kingdom  in  place  of  the  two  separate  States.  It 
was  England's  duty  to  take  over  the  government  of  the 
sister  isle  herself,  since  the  English  "  garrison  "  had  failed 
in  the  task.  The  Union  was  the  only  possible  method  of 
protecting  the  Protestant  "  colony M  in  Ireland  and 
maintaining  Cromwell's  settlement.  Moreover,  the 
prosperity  attained  by  Scotland  under  its  Union  was  a 
precedent  of  good  augury.  These  were  the  reasons  put 
forward  by  William  Pitt.,  the  author  of  the  L'nion.  But 
the  truth  was  that  England  wished  to  have  done  with  the 
Irish  nation,  the  Irish  Parliament,  and  the  rights  of 
Ireland.  Pitt  could  have  imposed  the  Union  upon  Ireland 
bv  force,  but  he  preferred  to  carry  it  through  by  corruption, 
and  to  make  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  pay  the  price  of  its 
own  destruction.  All  the  unbribed  intellect  of  Ireland  was 
wholly  against  the  Union,  as  Lecky  tells  us.  But  even- 
official  who  opposed  it  was  dismissed  from  his  place. 
Moreover,  the  immediate  concession  of  religious  liberty 
and  Catholic  emancipation  was  promised,  gifts  for  which, 
however,  the  Catholics  had.  in  the  event,  to  wait  twenty- 
nine  years.  Votes  were  bought  by  the  hundred.  The 
owners  of  rotten  boroughs  received  an  indemnity.  Peers 
and  Members  of  Parliament  were  won  over  by  pensions, 
titles,  and  monev-bribes.  The  transaction  cost  a  million 
and  a  half  of  money,  which,   by  a  supreme  stroke  of 


BEFORE  THE  UNION  51 

irony,  was  debited  to  the  separate  National  Debt  of 
Ireland.  "  There  is  no  blacker  or  fouler  transaction 
in  the  history  of  man,"  declared  Gladstone,  ':  than 
the  making  of  the  Union  between  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  "4 

4  Three  yeaxs  after  the  Union  a  young  Irishman,  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  who  had  had  a  brilliant  career  at  Trinity  College,  having  sought 
aid  from  Napoleon,  organised  a  conspiracy  against  the  English  G  : 
ment  in  Ireland.       On  the  25th  July,   1803,  he  marched  on  Dublin 
Castle  at  the  head  of  a  few  hundred  men.      The  raid  failed,  but  not 
before  the  maddened  crowd  of  rebels  had  murdered  the  old 
Justice,  Lord   Kilwarden,  with  their  pikes.      Their  chief,  with 
faithful  friends,   took  refuge  in  the   Wicklow  mountains.        Having 
returned  to  Dublin  to  see  his  sweetheart,  Sarah  Curran,  before  leaving 
for  France,  he  was  captured,  tried,  and  hanged.     His  youth,  his  noble 
patriotism,  the  purity  of  his  life,  and  of  his  love,  have  made  Robert 
Emmet  one  of   the  favourite  heroes  of  the  Irish  people.      See  Robert 
Emmet,  by  the  late  Comtesse  d'  Haussonville,  Par:-    :    ;;.       See  alsc 
the    fine  pages  of  George  Brandes  on  Emmet  and   the  Patriot  United 
Irishmen.      Die  Liiteratur  des  igth  Jahrhunderts  in  Ihrt 
mungen    IV.,  p.  182  to  221.     {IrischeO':  Leipsic    1900. 


CHAPTER    IL— SINCE    THE    UNION.* 

There  runs  through  the  history  of  Ireland  during  the 
nineteenth  century  a  sort  of  systematic  rise  and  fall  that 
is  distressing  to  contemplate.  The  movement  in  which 
each  effort  took  shape  differed  very  little  from  the  one 
that  went  before  it  and  the  one  that  was  to  come  after  it. 
Between  them  there  intervened  periods  of  dire  national 
prostration  and  universal  distress.  At  such  times  the 
nation  seemed,  as  it  were,  dead,  and  the  people  lay  inert, 
an  easy  prey  to  every  form  of  corruption.  The  cause  at 
stake  in  each  movement  was  indeed  different.  But  in 
each  the  people  had  to  encounter  the  same  difficulties, 
fell  into  the  same  errors,  suffered  from  the  same  illusions. 
In  each  movement  we  find  the  same  lack  of  preparation 
and  perseverance,  the  same  want  of  completeness. 
Favourable  opportunities  were  ever  let  slip.  The  move- 
ments did  not  always  end  in  failure,  but  they  never 
achieved  more  than  partial  success.  The  same  tragedy 
was  re-enacted  in  every  generation  upon  the  same  stage 
with  dreary  monotony.    The   actors  alone  were  changed. 

i  See  especially  on  the  history  of  Ireland  in  the  19th  century  the 
following  general  works  : — Edouard  Hervé,  la  Crise  Irlandaise,  Paris, 
1885.  F.  de  Pressensé,  l'Irlande  et  V Angleterre  depuis  l'Acte  d'Union 
jusqu'à  nos  jours,  Paris,  1889.  O'Connor  Morris,  Ireland  from  1798  to 
1898,  London,  1898.  J.  H.  MacCarthy,  Ireland  since  the  Union, 
London,  1887.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  New  Ireland,  London,  1877.  W.  E.  H. 
Lecky,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  2nd  edition,  London,  1871, 
and  3rd  edition,  London,  1903.  R.  Barry  O'Brien,  Fifty  Years  Concessions 
to  Ireland,  London,  1883-1885.  By  the  same  author,  Irish  Wrongs 
and  English  Remedies,  London,  1887.  By  the  same  author,  A  Hundred 
Years  of  Irish  History,  London,  1902,.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  The  Parnell 
Movement,  London,  1886.  Isaac  Butt,  Irish  People  and  Irish  Land, 
London,  1867.  Davitt,  The  Fall  of  Feudalism  in  Ireland,  London 
and  New  York,  1904.  Sir  J.  Barrington,  Sketches  of  his  Own  Times, 
London,  1869.     Greville  Memoirs,  London,  1885. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  53 

Throughout  all  these  vicissitudes  another  contest  is  seen 
in  progress.  There  were  at  all  times  two  rival  factions 
side  by  side  in  the  Irish  camp.  On  one  side  stood  con- 
stitutional agitation  within  the  law,  an  agitation  open  and 
unconcealed,  loud-voiced,  aiming  not  at  complete  separa- 
tion from  England,  but  at  the  attainment  of  self-govern- 
ment for  Ireland.  On  the  other  side  we  find  Fenianism, 
or  the  "Physical  Force  Movement,"  as  the  Irish  call  it. 
Secret  in  its  methods,  uncompromising  in  its  ends,  it 
recked  little  what  means  it  should  employ  to  achieve  by 
revolution  that  complete  separation  from  Britain  at  which 
it  aimed.  Between  these  two  movements  there  was  es- 
tablished a  sort  of  oscillation.  As  either  of  them  grew 
weaker  the  other  invariably  grew  stronger.  No  sooner 
did  the  Government  suppress  legal  agitation  than  an 
agitation  of  an  illegal  character  took  its  place. 

On  the  English  side  there  is  the  like  weary  monotony.  The 
fervent  patriotism,  the  passionate  enthusiasm  of  the  Irish, 
is  countered  by  inertia  combined  with  a  rooted  egotism 
and  indifference.  In  each  generation  throughout  the 
century  affairs  passed  through  the  same  cycle.  First 
there  is  the  definite  refusal  to  listen  to  Irish  grievances  ; 
complaints  are  treated  with  mockery  and  insult  ;  states- 
men shrug  their  shoulders  and  adopt  an  attitude  of  non- 
possumus.  Then  the  Irish  begin  to  support  their  demands 
by  acts  of  violence.  The  Government  reply  by  passing 
Coercion  Acts — that  is  to  say,  a  sort  of  "  martial  law," 
or  "  law  of  suspects,"  contenting  themselves,  in  Lord 
Cowper's  phrase,  with  driving  discontent  beneath  the 
surface.  Forgetting  the  famous  saying  of  John  Bright 
that  "  force  is  no  remedy,"  they  adopt  a  policy  of  mere 
repression  unaccompanied  by  reform.  Meantime,  anarchy 
continues  to  increase,  till  at  last,  in  the  hope  of  putting  a 
stop  to  it,  the  Government  is  forced  to  give  way.  They 
surrender,  but  only  when  matters  have  reached  the  worst 
pass,  and  they  are  induced  to  do  so  not  by  considerations 
of  justice,  but  by  dread  of  revolution.  A  premium  was 
thus     put     upon   disorder.      Civil    war    was    positively 


54  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

encouraged,  and  the  Irish  were  not  slow  to  draw  the  moral. 
They  soon  perceived  that  no  reform  could  be  obtained 
from  England  upon  its  merits,  that  there  was  nothing 
but  could  be  won  by  agitation.  Gladstone  himself 
declared  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  Land  League  the 
Land  Act  of  iSSi  would  never  have  been  passed.  And 
before  Gladstone's  time,  Lord  John  Russell,  also  a  Liberal, 
had  said  bluntly  to  his  fellow-countrymen  :  k'  Your 
oppressions  have  taught  the  Irish  to  hate,  your  con- 
cessions to  brave  you.  You  have  exhibited  to  them  how 
scanty  was  the  stream  ot  your  bounty,  how  full  the  tribute 
of  your  fear.'"  -  Again,  had  English  concessions  ever  been 
broad  and  honest  measures,  serious  and  straightforward 
attempts  to  settle  questions,  Ireland  might  have  been 
conciliated,  and  perhaps  cured.  But  the  English  at  all 
times  neglected  the  advice  of  Grattan,  that  refusals  should 
ever  be  polite,  concessions  gracious.  Worse  still,  these 
tardy  reforms,  wrung  from  England  against  her  will, 
failed  in  their  effect  foi  the  most  part.  They  did  not  go 
far  enough,  were  sometimes  purely  illusory,  and  at  all 
times  bought  at  too  dear  a  price.  Ireland  had  need  of 
courageous  and  drastic  remedies.  English  legislation  was 
hesitating  and  insufficient.  It  required,  for  instance,  no 
less  than  five  Land  Acts  from  1S81  to  1S96  to  organise 
the  system  of  judicial  rent-fixing.  Again,  England  sought 
to  impose  on  Ireland  her  own  legislative  notions,  her  Poor 
Law  and  her  system  of  education,  for  instance,  and  never 
stopped  to  consider  whether  such  ideas  were  repugnant 
to  the  feelings  of  Irishmen,  whether,  as  Lord  Rosebery 
put  it,  Irishmen  might  not  prefer  their  own  familiar 
potatoes  to  the  truffles  which  they  neither  knew  nor 
appreciated.  The  English  Government  made  it  a  point 
never  to  consult  Irishmen  as  to  what  remedies  should  be 
applied.  In  the  words  of  Swift,  they  sent  the  medicine 
from  a  distance,  and  had  it  applied  by  a  doctor  who  knew 
neither  the  patient  nor  the  malady. 

2  Quoted  by  Barry  R.  O'Brien,  A  Hundred  Years  of  Irish  History, 
p.  119  and  122. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  55 

The  more  liberal  the  English  Parliament  shows  itself 
in  its  dealings  with  Scotland,  the  more  illiberal  it  is  in  its 
treatment  of  Ireland.  It  never  gets  beyond  half  measures 
and  compromises  ;  takes  away  with  one  hand  what  it 
gives  with  the  other  ;  and  clogs  every  concession  with 
conditions  which  practically  cancel  it.  Two  examples 
out  of  a  great  number  will  suffice.  A  system  of  outdoor 
relief  for  the  poor  was  instituted  bv  an  Act  of  the  year 
1838.  All  peasants  who  worked  a  quarter  of  an  acre  or 
more,  that  is  to  say,  the  great  majority  of  Irish  peasants, 
were  excluded  from  its  operation.  In  the  same  year  the 
peasants  were  relieved  from  paying  tithes  to  the  Protestant 
Church,  and  the  tithes  were  put  upon  the  landlords.  But 
the  landlords  were  left  free  to  raise  the  rents  by  a  corres- 
ponding amount.  In  the  result,  the  peasants  remained 
liable  to  the  same  burden  as  before,  but  had  not  the  same 
opportunities  of  complaint.  In  everything  else  it  was  the 
same.  Ireland  soon  came  to  rate  at  their  true  value  those 
magnanimous  concessions  made  by  British  Liberalism, 
those  cunning  and  illusory  devices  which  took  away  the 
shadow  of  a  grievance  and  left  the  substance. 

I. — O'Connell.3 

In  the  year  1800,  after  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Union, 
as  in  169 1  after  the  Treaty  of  Limerick,  a  favourable 
opportunity  was  offered  to  the  English  Government  of 
redeeming  the  past  and  conciliating  Ireland,  by  adopting 
a  policy  of  concord  and  good  will.     In  Grattan's  phrase, 

3  See  especially,  on  the  period  1800- 1847,  the  works  of  Sidney  Smith; 
the  Life,  Memoirs  and  Correspondence  of  Melbourne,  Palmerston,  and 
Peel;  the  Speeches  of  O'Connell  and  Shiel.  Th.  Wyse,  Historical  Sketch 
of  the  Catholic  Association,  London,  1829.  Life,  Times  and  Correspon- 
dence of  Right  Rev.  Doctor  Doyle,  by  W.  J.  Fitzpatrick,  Dublin,  1880. 
Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  Young  Ireland,  London,  1880,  and  Four  Years  of  Irish 
History,  London,  1883.  Shaw  Lefevre,  Peel  and  O'Connell,  London, 
i88/\  Guizot,  Sir  Robert  Peel,  Paris,  1856.  Fitzpatrick,  D.  O'Connell' s 
Correspondence,  London.  1888.  Barry  O'Brien,  Th.  Drummond, 
London,  1889.  Canon  O'Rourke,  Life  of  O'Connell,  London,  1875. 
MacLennan,  Life  of  Thomas  Drummond,  Edinburgh,  1867.  Cf.  Nemours 
Godre,  Daniel  O'Connell,  Paris,  1893. 


56  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

the  marriage  had  been  brought  about,  and  it  now  remained 
to  make  it  fruitful.  The  two  parliaments  had  been  united. 
It  remained  to  unite  the  two  peoples,  to  bring  the  different 
classes  together,  to  adopt  measures  of  reparation,  which 
should  make  up  to  Ireland  for  the  evils  wrought  by  com- 
mercial restraints  and  Penal  Laws.  This  was  precisely 
the  policy  that  the  English  Government  did  not  adopt. 
The  Government  had  been  centralised.  The  governed 
were  neither  reconciled  nor  united.  Nay  more,  by  the 
suppression  of  the  Irish  Parliament  and  the  fusion  of  the 
two  legislatures,  the  chasm  between  the  two  nations  was 
widened. 

"  It  was  much  less,"  writes  G.  de  Beaumont, 4  "  the 
union  of  Ireland  to  England  than  an  alliance  between  the 
English  and  the  Protestant  party  in  Ireland,  who,  being 
no  longer  able  to  govern  Ireland,  threw  themselves  into  the 
arms  of  their  ruler  and  handed  over  to  him  every  instru- 
ment of  tyranny  and  persecution,  on  condition  that  they 
should  share  in  that  tyranny  as  heretofore." 

After  the  Union,  as  before  it,  Ireland  remained  a 
"  colony,"  or  "  dependency."  Its  government  was 
marred  by  all  the  abuses  and  all  the  oppression  which 
that  form  of  rule  connotes.  Government  was  based  upon 
force  or  upon  corruption.  Coercion  Acts  became  a  per- 
manent institution  ;  and  while  the  supreme  power  of  the 
Ascendancy  remained,  it  was  relieved  of  all  sense  of 
responsibility,  robbed  even  of  that  glamour  of  patriotism 
which  had  formerly  illumed  its  actions,  and  left  freer  than 
ever  to  oppress  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  whom  England 
abandoned  to  its  mercy. 

The  Catholics  of  Ireland,  indeed,  after  the  Union,  lay 
prostrate  in  a  state  of  utter  exhaustion  and  torpid  despair. 
There  was  no  hope  for  them.  They  were,  to  use  a  famous 
phrase,  "like  a  corpse  on  the  dissecting  table."  Public 
spirit  was  dead  amongst  them.  "  The  country,"  as  Shiel 
said,  "  was  in  a  state  of  degrading  and  unwholesome 
tranquillity.     We  sat  down  like  galley  slaves  in  a  calm 

4  Op.  cit.  II.,  17. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  57 

.  .  .  the  public  pulse  had  stopped  .  .  .  and  the  country 
was  palsied  to  the  heart."  This  was  the  result  at  once  of 
the  Penal  Laws  and  of  the  reaction  that  followed  on  the 
insurrection. 

"  By  long  bending  they  had  become  bent,"  writes  Dr. 
Wyse  ;  '  '  their  mind,  like  a  human  body  long  confined 
within  too  small  a  prison,  refused  itself  to  the  free 
functions  of  other  citizens.  The  scourge  had  ceased  and 
the  fetter  had  been  unlocked;  but  for  years  afterwards 
the  brand  and  the  scar  remained  behind.  "5 

The  Catholic  religion  enjoyed,  relatively  speaking,  a 
considerable  degree  of  tolerance.  Men  were  unwilling  to 
risk  this  in  seeking  for  something  better.  The  idea  that 
they  might  perhaps  provoke  a  revival  of  the  Penal  Laws 
was  enough  to  strike  terror  into  them.  The  statesmen 
who  had  negotiated  the  Act  of  Union  had  made  a 
solemn  promise  of  complete  emancipation  to  the  Irish 
Papists.  But,  just  as  after  Limerick,  the  promise  was 
destined  to  be  broken.  Every  year  the  Protestant  Liberal 
members  of  Parliament,  Grattan,  Ponsonby  and  Plunket, 
demanded  that  the  Parliament  should  carry  out  Pitt's 
undertaking.  It  was  mere  waste  of  time.  The  King, 
George  III.,  had  sworn  that  Catholic  emancipation  should 
never  be  passed  during  his  lifetime. 

The  Catholics,  moreover,  were  divided  among  them- 
selves. There  had  existed  in  Ireland  since  the  year  1760  a 
league,  which,  under  various  names,  such  as  the  Catholic 
Committee  or  the  Catholic  Association,  had  been  working 
to  obtain  Catholic  emancipation.  Two  rival  parties  ex- 
isted in  it,  the  middle  class  or  popular  party  led  by  John 
Keogh,  and  the  party  of  the  Catholic  gentry,  led  first  by 
Lord  Kenmare  and  later  by  Lord  Fingall.  These  latter, 
though  prevented  by  their  religion  from  belonging  to  the 
Ascendancy,  were,  from  a  political  point  of  view,  in 
sympathy  with  it.  Being  out  of  sympathy  with  the 
popular  party,  these  "  rallies  "  found  themselves  at 
variance  with  it  on  many  points,  but  most  of  all  on  the 

5  Thomas  Wyse,  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Catholic  Association,  I.,  53. 


58  HISTORICAL  INTRODUCTION 

question  of  the  "Veto,"  a  matter  which  was  under  dis- 
cussion throughout  the  first  quarter  of  the  century.  They 
sought  to  secure  the  payment  of  the  clergy,  the  State  in 
return  receiving  a  veto  on  the  appointment  of  Bishops. 
The  project  had  in  the  end  to  be  dropped,  owing  to  the 
popular  opposition  which  it  provoked.  These  divisions 
rendered  the  Catholic  league  powerless.  Socially  and 
politically  things  grew  worse  and  worse.  There  was  a 
famine  almost  every  year,  those  of  1817  and  1825  being 
particularly  bad.  The  Government  could  find  no  remedy 
other  than  Coercion  Acts,  of  which  there  were  twenty 
between  1800  and  1820.  "  There  was  no  law  for  the 
Catholics."  The  powers  of  the  Protestant  Oligarchy 
were  increased.  "The  squireens,  the  slave-drivers  of  Ire- 
land,"6 were  allowed  to  oppress  the  poor  as  they  liked. 
Orange  societies  rapidly  multiplied  and  devoted  them- 
selves to  organising  attacks  upon  the  Catholics.  The 
Catholics  met  violence  with  violence,  crime,  Whiteboyism, 
or  Ribbonism.  All  open  opposition  was  suppressed, 
and  conspiracy  took  its  place.  The  government  of 
Ireland  was  in  those  days  a  government  of  landlordism 
tempered  by  assassination. 

A  man  now  came  upon  the  scene  who  was  to  rouse  the 
people  from  their  state  of  torpid  prostration,  who,  in  his 
own  words,  "  was  to  sound  the  resurrection  trumpet  and 
show  that  she  was  not  dead  but  sleeping."  7  This  man  was 
Daniel  O'Connell.  By  birth  he  belonged  to  the  upper 
classes.8  His  instincts  were  essentially  conservative,  but 
in  temperament  he  was  a  democrat,  almost  a  demagogue. 
For  he  was  "  a  man  of  the  people  "  down  to  the  very 
depths  of  his  being.  Like  the  people  themselves,  he  was 
rough,  boisterous,  arrogant,  strong,  needy,  jovial,  eager, 

6  This  phrase  and  the  preceding  one  are  taken  from  Dr.  Do}de. 
{Life,  Xitnes  and  Correspondence,  L,  382,  383). 

7  Quoted  by  Lecky,  Leaders  of  Public  Opinion  in  Ireland,  3rd  éd., 
II.,  239. 

8  His  family  belonged  to  the  Kerry  gentry,  and  was  of  Conservative 
tendencies.  One  of  his  uncles,  Count  O'Connell,  served  in  the  Irish 
Brigade  and  followed  the  Bourbons  in  the  Emigration.  Daniel  O'Connell 
states  himself  that  at  the  time  of  Robert  Emmet's  rising  he  was  "  almost 
a  Tory."     Lecky,  op.  cit.  IL,  4. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  59 

unrefined,  good-natured  and  egotistical,  possessed  of  a 
soul  at  once  "  royal  and  vulgar,  "9  and  full  of  himself  and 
of  his  power.  The  Irish  Ascendancy  hated  him,  as  did 
the  whole  English  people  ;  the  Protestant  Liberals  and 
even  the  Catholic  gentry  of  Ireland  regarded  him  with 
jealousy  and  dread.  A  typical  Irishman  at  once  in  his 
strength  and  in  his  weaknesses,  O'Connell  was  possessed  of 
all  the  qualities  which  could  enable  him  to  rouse  the 
Irish  masses  and  lead  them  forth  by  the  mere  force  of 
oratory  into  the  ranks  of  the  constitutional  struggle. 
The  Irish  masses  were  abject  and  unresisting  slaves.  The 
fire  of  O'Connell 's  eloquence,  his  tone  of  defiance  and  of  com- 
mand, his  power  of  invective,  his  intensity  of  conviction,  all 
these  combined  to  rouse  up  and  influence  his  fellow- 
countrymen  and  give  them  confidence  in  their  leader  and 
in  themselves.  In  addition  to  this  he  was  a  lawyer  of 
consummate  ability.  His  practice  at  the  bar  had  made 
him  quick  to  seize  upon  the  weak  points  of  a  new  law. 
He  had  unequalled  skill  in  "  driving  a  coach  and  four 
through  an  Act  of  Parliament."  It  was  O'Connell  who 
first  originated  "  popular  agitation  within  the  law,"  and 
at  once  brought  that  new  instrument  for  obtaining  social 
reform  to  the  highest  pitch  of  perfection.  Cobden  and 
the  English  were  in  this  matter  his  pupils  ;  and  all  free 
peoples  have  since  learnt  the  lesson.  This  weapon  of 
popular  constitutional  agitation  was  needed  to  restore 
the  courage  of  a  people  that  had  never  known  any  other 
means  of  attaining  liberty  save  insurrection. 

O'Connell  was  violent,  but  his  violence  was  only  of 
words.  Physical  violence  he  consistently  denounced. 
Moral  force  was  all  he  sought  to  employ.  "  There  is  a 
moral  electricity  in  the  continuous  expression  of  public 
opinion  concentrated  upon  a  single  point,  perfectly  irre- 
sistible in  its  efficacy."10 

The  multitude  must  bear  all  before  it  ;  but  who  was 
there  to  organise  it,  to  unify  it,  to  put  it  in  motion  ? 

9  John  Mitchel,  Jail  Journal,  p.  139. 
10  Quoted  by  Lecky,  op.  cit.  II.,.  242. 


6o  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

The  question  admitted  of  only  one  answer.  The  priests 
were  the  sole  advisers  the  people  had.  Two  Bishops, 
both  of  them  famous  Irishmen,  Dr.  Doyle  and  Dr.  Mac- 
Hale,  had  already  prepared  men's  minds  for  the  move- 
ment. In  1823  O'Connell,  with  Shiel's  assistance,  had 
re-organised  the  old  Catholic  Association.  The  Liberal 
Protestants  and  the  Catholic  gentry  joined,  as  did  also  the 
two  bishops.  The  whole  of  the  clergy  followed  their 
example.  The  Catholic  Association  was  before  long 
spread  throughout  all  Ireland,  and  the  entire  country 
enrolled  under  its  banner.  Suppressed  by  the  Govern- 
ment, it  re-appeared  under  another  name.  The  clergy 
and  the  Association  combined  to  urge  the  people  to  action. 
They  protected  them  against  their  landlords,  roused  them 
to  exercise  independence  as  voters,  and  saved  them  from 
the  consequences  of  doing  so.  Meetings  were  held  every- 
where. Every  man  paid  his  share  of  the  "  Catholic 
Rent."  After  five  years  of  agitation,  carried  on  by  legal 
means,  the  Association  achieved  its  object.  In  1828 
O'Connell  had  himself  been  elected  as  member  for  Clare, 
though,  as  a  Catholic,  he  was  at  that  time  unable  to  take 
his  seat.  In  the  following  year  the  Government,  at  long 
last,  granted  Catholic  Emancipation.11  But  it  had  to  be 
bought  at  a  dear  price,  for  it  was  only  granted  on  con- 
dition that  the  forty  shilling  freeholders  should  be  de- 
prived of  their  votes,  and  the  electorate  of  Ireland  thus 
reduced  from  about  200,000  to  26,000.  None  the  less, 
it  was  a  great  victory  for  "  agitation  within  the  law," 
and  still  more  so  for  the  man  who  had  brought  that 
agitation  into  being,  and  was  henceforth  to  be  known  by 
the  title  of  the  Liberator. 

Encouraged  by  this  first  success,  while  the  clergy  were 
occupied  by  the  tithe  war,  or  in  repressing  the  excesses  of 
the  soldiery  on  the  one  hand,  or  the  "  Whiteboys  "  and 
their  successors  the  "  Ribbonmen  "  on  the  other,  O'Connell 

11  That  is  to  say,  that  share  of  it  which  it  remained  to  grant,  the 
right  of  Catholics  to  be  members  of  parliament,  and  to  be  admitted 
to  all  public  positions. 


SINCE   THE    UNION  61 

was  devising  a  fresh  campaign.  This  time  he  sought  to 
secure  by  agitation,  within  the  law,  the  repeal  of  the  Act 
of  Union.  Repeal  was  not  a  novel  idea.  Shortly 
after  the  Union  it  had  been  pressed  forward,  strange  as  it 
may  seem,  by  Tory  Protestants  and  Orangemen.  But 
now  things  had  changed.  The  Protestants  had  been 
beaten  by  the  Papists  and  the  "  agitator."  They  would 
no  longer  listen  to  proposals  for  Repeal.  The  same  attitude 
was  taken  up  by  Protestant  Liberals,  who,  together  with 
the  Catholic  gentry,  now  abandoned  O'Connell.  Protes- 
tant Ireland  for  the  first  time  declared  itself  defi- 
nitely "  Unionist."  O'Connell,  moreover,  for  some  years 
suspended  all  agitation  and  supported  Lord  Melbourne's 
ministry  at  Westminster  from  1835  to  1840  ;  the  Irish 
members  for  the  first  time  allied  themselves  with  the 
English  Whigs.  Ireland  gained  little  by  the  compact, 
and  no  reforms  of  any  importance  were  carried  out, 
although  Thomas  Drummond,  a  Scotchman  who  was 
Under-Secretary  in  Dublin,  distinguished  himself  by  his 
courage  in  seeking  to  bring  landlords  and  Orangemen  to 
reason.  At  last  the  alliance  was  broken,  and  O'Connell 
once  again  took  up  the  agitation  for  Repeal.  As  on 
former  occasions,  he  received  the  support  of  the  clergy, 
and  also  consented  to  receive  that  of  a  group  of  young 
enthusiasts,  who  styled  themselves  "  Young  Ireland,"  in 
contradistinction  to  their  aged  leader.  The  Repeal  Asso- 
ciation spread  rapidly.  The  Repeal  Rent  rapidly  in- 
creased, and  the  country  seemed  on  the  eve  of  great 
happenings.  In  1842  O'Connell  promised  that  "  Repeal  " 
would  be  passed  in  the  following  year.  The  year  1843 
was,  in  fact,  the  year  of  crisis.  The  agitation  was  then  at  its 
height  ;  the  enthusiasm  was  immense  ;  popular  demonstra- 
tions, attended  by  enormous  multitudes  of  persons,  were 
held  throughout  the  country.  Two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  persons  took  part  in  one  of  them,  which  was  held 
at  the  Hill  of  Tara,  the  site  of  the  palace  of  the  ancient 
kings.  At  none  of  these  "  monster  meetings  "  was  there 
any  disturbance.     Perfect  discipline  was  maintained — a 


62  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

result  due  to  the  influence  of  the  "  Liberator,"  and  to  that 
of  the  famous  Father  Mathew,  who  was  then  preaching 
his  temperance  crusade  with  unparalleled  success.  But 
every  man  was  stirred  to  the  depths  when  O'Connell 
menaced  the  Government  and  pledged  himself  to  resist- 
ance. "  Are  the  Irish  to  be  treated  as  slaves  ?  Will  they 
submit  to  be  trampled  under  foot  ?  Let  our  enemies 
attack  us  if  they  dare,  they  shall  never  trample  me  under 
their  feet.  If  they  do  so  it  will  be  my  dead  body."  The 
crisis  was  grave.  O'Connell  made  every  effort  to  avert  a 
conflict.  But  popular  excitement  as  a  result  of  these 
politics  at  high  pressure  had  risen  to  a  point  at  which  it 
could  with  difficulty  be  restrained  from  bursting  forth 
into  open  rebellion.  This  was  what  men  anticipated  on 
all  sides.  "  The  Counsellor12  will  give  us  the  word,"  they 
said. 

Instead  of  giving  the  order  to  advance  at  the  famous 
Clontarf  meeting  the  Counsellor  sounded  the  retreat.  On 
the  morning  of  the  meeting  it  was  illegally  "  proclaimed  " 
by  "  the  Castle."  From  all  sides  the  long  processions  of 
those  about  to  take  part  in  the  demonstration  were 
marching  in.  The  troops  assumed  a  threatening  attitude, 
and  agitation  "  within  the  law  "  seemed  about  to  end  in 
open  conflict  after  all. 

The  expectation  was  mistaken.  "  No  revolution  is 
worth  the  spilling  of  one  single  drop  of  human  blood."  *3 
The  great  agitator  gave  the  order  to  disperse  ;  the  "  pro- 
claimed "  meeting  would  not  take  place.  The  man  of  peace 
gave  way.  Twenty  years  earlier  things  might  have  been 
different.  But  O'Connell  was  old — he  was  aged  sixty- 
eight — and  worn  out.  The  memory  of  the  blood  he  had 
shed  in  his  duel  with  d'Esterre  weighed  upon  his  mind. 
A  dread  of  violence  possessed  him,  and  he  yielded  to  fear. 
That  day  destroyed  the  trust  of  the  people  in  their  leader, 
and  ruined  the  cause  for  which  he  had  laboured.     Not 

12  Lecky,  op.  cit.,  IL,  242,  243.  O'Connell  was  called  "  the 
Counsellor,"  as  Swift  had  been  called  "  the  Dean." 

J3  A  phrase  of  O'ConnelFs  quoted  by  Lecky.     Op.  cit.  IL,  263,  264. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  63 

long  afterwards  he  was  put  upon  his  trial  and  found 
guilty  by  a  jury  of  Orangemen.  His  sentence  was  quashed 
by  the  House  of  Lords  ;  but  his  release  from  gaol  was 
destined  to  be  his  last  triumph,  and,  worn  out  by  illness, 
he  retired  from  public  life.  Later  he  sought  to  return  to 
it,  abandoned  Repeal  for  a  vain  policy  of  Federalism, 
entered  into  alliance  with  the  English  Whigs,  and  saw 
himself  repudiated  by  the  Young  Irelanders.  He  lived 
on  for  some  months  in  absolute  inaction,  to  see  the  earlier 
horrors  of  the  Great  Famine  ;  set  out  upon  a  journey  to 
the  Eternal  City,  and  died  at  Genoa  on  the  15th  May, 
1847,  leaving  his  body  to  Ireland,  his  heart  to 
Rome. 

It  is  difficult  to  pass  judgment  on  O'Connell.  It  might 
truly  be  said  that  for  more  than  thirty  years  he  embodied 
in  his  single  person  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Irish  nation. 
The  English  judge  him  by  his  faults,  the  violence  of  the 
demagogue,  the  bombast  of  the  popular  orator.  He  made 
agitation  a  trade,  they  say,  and  levied  payments  for  his 
services  in  the  shape  of  the  tribute.  He  was  a' patriot  for 
pay — the  "  Big  Beggarman."  They  forget  that  English 
oppression  had  made  agitation  a  stern  necessity  in  Ireland 
and  that  Fox  and  Pitt,  Cobden  and  Bright,  received 
financial  assistance  from  their  party,  just  as  did  O'Connell. 
In  his  own  country  the  men  of  ''  Young  Ireland  "  looked 
upon  "  Old  Dan  "  with  contempt.  The  "  Physical 
Force  "  party  have  even  regarded  him  with  open  hatred. 
Not  long  after  his  death,  Father  Kenyon,  a  priest  and  a 
"  Young  Irelander,"  described  him  as  a  "  Grand  homme 
manqué."  John  Mitchel,  the  revolutionary,  declared  that 
"next  to  the  British  Government  he  was  the  greatest 
enemy  Ireland  ever  had."  But  the  great  mass  of 
his  contemporaries  took  a  different  view.  They  looked 
upon  him  as  the  "  Liberator,"  and  honoured  him  with 
that  title  in  his  own  lifetime,  and,  on  the  whole,  posterity 
has  ratified  this  judgment.  In  many  respects  he  may 
truly  be  called  the  father  of  modern  Ireland  and  modern 
Irish   democracy.     In   political   matters,    like   Rieger  in 


64  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

Bohemia.^  he  roused  his  people  from  lethargy  and  gave 
them  the  desire  to  think  and  act.  He  made  the  public 
opinion  of  Ireland  a  factor  with  which  England  must 
reckon  for  the  future.  Whatever  view  we  take  of  his 
work,  we  cannot  help  criticising  it  severely  in  certain 
directions.  In  three  matters  especially  he  is  open  to 
attack.  First,  he  helped  on  the  Anglicisation  of  Ireland. 
He  neglected  the  Irish  language,  as  far  as  he  was  personally 
concerned,  and  by  entering  into  alliance  with  the  Whigs, 
he  fixed  the  attention  of  Irishmen  entirely  upon  West- 
minster. Then  again,  having  once  aroused  public  opinion, 
he  sought  neither  to  form  nor  to  educate  it,  but  used  it  to 
make  himself  dictator,  suffering  none  to  oppose  his  wishes. 
He  left  behind  him  in  Ireland,  says  an  historian,^  "  a 
great  memory,  but  not  a  great  party." 

Lastly,  he  believed  that  "  agitation  within  the  law,"  of 
which  he  was  the  originator — a  powerful  weapon  indeed 
— to  be  all-powerful.  He  would  have  nothing  to  do  with 
any  other  method.  In  this  he  was  clearly  wrong.  Moral 
force,  unhappily,  is  not  all-powerful.  In  many  cases  it 
must  inevitably  end  in  open  conflict.  O'Connell  declared 
that  no  human  revolution  was  worth  the  spilling  of  a 
single  drop  of  blood.  For  twenty-five  years  this  doctrine 
of  cowardice,  ''which  could  haidly  be  accepted  in  its 
literal  sense  by  anyone  except  Quakers,"16  says  Lecky, 
weighed  the  country  down.  It  is  proved  untrue  by  the 
whole  history  of  modern  liberty.  Might  it  not,  indeed, 
with  more  justice  be  said  that  only  those  causes  are  great 
which  have  to  be  defended  at  the  cost  of  innocent  blood  ? 

x4  An  interesting  parallel  might  be  established  between  Rieger  and 
O'Connell.  Both  were  opportunists  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  ; 
glory,  and,  in  old  age,  unpopularity,  was  the  portion  of  both.  Both 
saw  the  uprise  of  a  more  extreme  party  which  the  country  preferred. 
But  O'Connell  did  not,  like  Rieger,  survive  his  defeat. 

x5  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  Four  Years  of  Irish  History,  p.  399. 

rt>  Op.  cit.  II.,  289. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  65 


II. — Young  Ireland  and  the  Revolution  of  1848. l 

It  was  this  dread  of  battle  on  the  part  of  the  grand  old 
campaigner   that   drove    "  Young   Ireland  "   to   despair. 
Under  that  title  were  comprised  the  group  of  ardent  new 
comers,  who  had  thrown  themselves  into  the  Repeal  move- 
ment since  1841  or   1842.     They  were   "  intellectuals," 
young  men  for  the  most  part.     Sprung  from  the  most 
diverse  classes,  they  were  united  in  a  common  enthusiasm 
and  love  of  country.    The  greatest  man  among  them  was 
Thomas  Davis.     A  deep  thinker,  an  idealist,  a  poet  of 
untainted  soul,  his  lofty  genius  won  universal  respect. 
He  was  fated  to  die  in  1845  in  his  thirty-fourth  year,  but 
his   teachings  will  never   be   forgotten  by  his   country. 
There  were  also  John  Blake  Dillon,  Charles  Gavan  Duffy, 
D'Arcy   MacGee,    Thomas   Francis   Meagher,    and   John 
Mitchel.      There  was  Smith  O'Brien,  a  descendant  of  the 
illustrious   family   of   O'Brien,    the   Earls   of   Thomond. 
Finally,   there   was   a  band   of  brilliant  writers,   James 
Clarence  Mangan,  John  O'Hagan,  Samuel  Ferguson,  and 
John  Kells  Ingram.      Many  of  them  were  Protestants, 
but  all  were  filled  with  a  generous  ardour  for  the  welfare  of 
Ireland.    But  what  could  they  do  to  help  her  ?    This  was 
the  question  that  Davis,  Dillon,  and  Duffy  put  to  them- 
selves as  they  were  walking  in  the   Phoenix  Park   near 
Dublin  one  fine  summer  evening  in  1842.     They  decided 
to  undertake  the  duty  which  O'Cormell  had  neglected, 
namely,  to  form  and  educate  public  opinion,  and  as  a 
means  to  that  end  to  found  a  newspaper.     Yet  it  was  not 
to  be  a  newspaper,   but  rather  an  instrument  for  the 
education  of  the  people  ;   in  which  every  week  in  inspired 
verse,  and  in  burning  prose,  they  might  send  forth  to  the 
country    a  message   of   sympathy    and   self-respect,    of 

1  See  especially  John  Mitchel,  Jail  Journal,  New  York,  1854, 
Dillon,  Life  of  John  Mitchel,  London,  1888.  Poems  and  Essays  of 
Thomas  Davis.  The  Ballad  Poetry  of  Ireland,  edited  by  Sir  C.  G. 
Duffy,  40th  edition,  London,  1869.  The  Spirit  of  the  Nation  (Dublin), 
an  anthology  of  the  Young  Ireland  Poets. 

F 


66  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

patriotism  and  of  tolerance.  Shortly  afterwards  the  Nation 
appeared.  Its  success  was  immediate,  and  beyond  all 
expectations.  It  took  men  of  every  class,  save  only  the 
peasantry,  by  storm.  The  whole  country,  even  the  Pro- 
testants, were  deeply  moved.  Public  spirit  was  ennobled 
and  purified,  and  in  a  few  months  the  greater  part  of  the 
nation  was  won  over  without  a  struggle  to  the  new  ideas. 
The  concept  of  nationality  preached  by  "  Young  Ireland  " 
was  far  loftier  than  that  which  passed  current  with  the 
preceding  generation.  O'Connell  was  interested  only  in 
the  material  grievances  of  his  countrymen.  But  with 
Davis  nationality  was  something  above  politics,  a  some- 
thing founded  on  language  and  literature,  on  history  and 
tradition.2  Again,  for  O'Connell,  Ireland  meant  only 
Catholic  Ireland.  Davis  and  his  disciples  preached  the 
union  of  all  creeds  and  classes,  and  as  a  natural  corollary, 
religious  tolerance.  "  Orange  and  Green  will  carry  the 
day."  The  older  men  looked  upon  the  Young  Irelanders 
as  free  thinkers.  The  Young  Irelanders  in  return 
regarded  them  as  clericals.  There  was  yet  another  dis- 
tinction. O'Connell  led  the  people  but  never  sought  to 
educate  them.  Young  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  sought 
to  free  Ireland  by  forming  public  opinion — "  Educate  that 
you  may  be  free  "  was  its  motto.  It  sought  to  turn  the 
thoughts  of  the  people  towards  their  past,  to  educate  them 
by  historical  publications,  to  fire  them  with  popular  poetry.3 
The  ballad  became  almost  an  institution  in  Ireland.4 

Young  Ireland  refused  to  accept  O'Connell's  view  as  to 
moral  force.  It  revolted  against  the  excessive  power  of 
the  priests,  against  the  tyranny  of  the  "  leader,"  against 
the  spirit  of  corruption  and  faction  that  then  prevailed. 
It  opposed  the  alliance  between  the  Irish  party  and  the 
English  Whigs,  which  had  reduced  the  former  to  a  mere 
Whig  wing  of  England  and  turned  Nationalist  politics 
into  a  mere  scramble  for  places.    It  hoped  to  maintain  an 

2  See  the  programme  of  the  Nation  in  Young  Ireland,  p.  80. 

3  See  the  Library  of  Ireland,  edited  by  Dufify. 

4  See  the  Spirit  of  the  Nation. 


SINCE   THE    UNION  67 

independent  party  of  disinterested  men  at  Westminster 
and  to  stir  up  in  Ireland  a  movement  that  should  be  at  once 
bolder  in  its  methods  and  loftier  and  less  utilitarian  in  its 
aims. 

With  all  these  sharp  points  of  difference  between 
"  Young  Ireland  "  and  what  for  the  future  was  to  be 
known  as  "  Old  Ireland,"  an  open  rupture  was  bound  to 
come  about  sooner  or  later.  It  had  been  threatening  ever 
since  O'ConnelPs  retreat  at  Clontarf.  It  occurred  finally 
as  the  result  of  a  discussion  about  those  provincial  uni- 
versities, the  Queen's  Colleges.  Sad  times  followed  for 
Ireland.  The  country  was  divided  against  itself.  O'Connell 
died  and  left  none  to  succeed  him,  and  Davis  himself 
was  just  dead.  The  great  Famine  broke  out.  But  worse 
was  to  come.  In  the  ranks  of  Young  Ireland  itself  there 
arose  a  new  schism.  The  leader  of  the  Young  Ireland 
party  at  this  time  was  William  Smith  O'Brien.  He  was 
a  man  of  patriotism  and  integrity,  but  conservative  by 
temperament,  and  strongly  opposed  to  all  revolutionary 
ideas. 5  Such  ideas,  however,  had  been  rapidly  gaining 
ground  in  the  party.  The  failure  of  the  "moral force  " 
agitation,  the  wretched  condition  of  Ireland,  and  the 
horrors  of  the  famine  which  the  Government  had  done 
nothing  to  relieve,  all  these  combined  to  bring  revolu- 
tionary ideas  to  the  front.  Towards  the  end  of  the  year 
1847  the  advocates  of  "  Physical  Force  "  no  longer  hesi- 
tated to  proclaim  themselves.  The  "  Montagnards," 
Mitchel,  Meagher  and  others,  separated  from  the  "  Giron- 
dins." The  latter  were  not,  indeed,  opposed  to  methods 
of  violence,  but  they  looked  upon  such  methods  as  a 
desperate  expedient  that  should  only  be  had  recourse  to 
after  long  preparation.  The  former  took  the  opposite 
view.  Ireland  could  only  be  saved  by  blood  and  iron. 
They  were  for  an  immediate  rising,  a  holy  war  that  should 
"  sweep  the  island  clear  of  the  English  name  and  nation." 
With  a  reformer  of  the  stamp  of  Davis  the  dominant 

5  "  There  is  too  much  Smith  and  too  little  O'Brien,"  said  somebody 
at  the  t'ime.      Young  Ireland,  p.  559. 


68  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

passion  was  love  of  Ireland  ;  ;vith  a  revolutionary  such 
as  Mitchel  it  was  hatred  of  England.  The  former  hoped 
to  conciliate,  to  assimilate  the  gentry  of  English  descent  ; 
the  latter  thought  only  of  destroying  it.  The  one  sought 
to  educate  the  Irish  and  bring  about  a  moral  reform  ; 
the  sole  aim  of  the  other  was  to  rouse  them  to  rebellion, 
whatever  their  unpreparedness,  whatever  the  cost.  Thus 
between  Mitchel  and  Davis,  both  of  them  Protestants, 
there  existed  a  gulf  no  less  wide  than  between  Davis  and 
the  Catholic  O'Connell.6 

John  Mitchel  and  the  "  war  party  "  were  expelled  from 
the  Nation.  On  the  12th  February,  1848,  he  brought  out 
the  first  number  of  his  new  paper,  the  United  Irishman,  in 
which  he  openly  preached  risings  and  street  fighting. 
He  called  the  Lord  Lieutenant  (Lord  Clarendon)  her 
Majesty's  Executioner  General  and  General  Butcher  of 
Ireland.  The  public  were  astonished.  They  looked  upon 
him  as  a  madman.  But  a  fortnight  later  the  revolution 
broke  out  in  Paris.  In  quick  succession  came  revolutions 
in  Berlin,  Vienna,  Prague  and  Italy.  Ireland  caught  the 
contagion.  The  whole  country  was  fired.  A  chance  of 
repeating  1782  seemed  to  have  presented  itself.  Mitchel 
became  the  hero  of  the  hour.  All  the  Young  Irelanders, 
even  Smith  O'Brien  himself,  were  seized  by  the  fever. 
Clubs  of  Confederates  were  organised  through  the  country. 
A  "  national  guard  "  began  to  drill  and  practice  arms. 
Unhappily,  divisions  continued  to  be  rife  among  the 
leaders.  Mitchel  was  for  instant  action.  He  redoubled 
the  violence  of  his  articles  in  the  United  Irishman,  with 
the  aim  of  provoking  an  immediate  conflict.  They  had  no 
plans,  no  military  leaders  ;  what  did  that  matter  ?  Had 
they  any  at  Paris  or  at  Berlin  ?  Long  live  the  Irish 
Republic  !  The  Young  Irelanders,  on  the  other  hand, 
wished  to  wait  for  the  summer  and  thus  have  time  for 

6  As  to  John  Mitchel  see  the  excellent  study  by  E.  Montégut.  L'Exil 
de  la  Jeune  Irlande  in  Choses  du  Nord  et  du  Midi,  Paris,  1886.  John 
Mitchel  was  not  a  mere  fanatic.  He  was,  intellectually,  the  most 
brilliant  of  the  Young  Irelanders.  See  his  criticism  of  Macaulay  and 
Bacon  in  his  Jail  Journal.     He  was  a  writer  of  exceptional  power. 


SINCE   THE   UNION  69 

preparation.  In  his  heart  Smith  O'Brien  would  have 
liked  to  play  the  part  of  Lafayette  and  make  terms  with 
the  Government.  He  reproached  the  "  Reds  "  with  en- 
couraging acts  of  individual  violence  .  The}?  on  their  side 
treated  him  as  an  aristocrat,  and  a  "  rose-water  revolu- 
tionary." The  English  Government  profited  by  these  dis- 
sensions to  nip  the  rising  in  the  bud.  It  secretly  armed 
the  Orangemen,  put  Dublin  under  military  occupation, 
and  struck  its  blow  by  the  arrest  of  Mitchel.  On  the 
20th  May  he  was  condemned  to  transportation,  and  was 
instantly  placed  on  board  a  war  vessel.  By  the  loss  of 
their  leader  the  insurgents  were  beaten  in  advance.  But 
things  had  gone  too  far  to  turn  back  ;  the  rising  had  to 
take  place.  It  was  hopeless  to  attempt  it  in  Dublin. 
Smith  O'Brien  and  his  friends,  as  a  counsel  of  despair, 
decided  to  try  a  rising  in  the  country.  They  went  through 
the  country  parts,  organising  bands,  and  possibly  they 
might  have  made  the  south  of  Ireland  a  second  Vendee 
had  they  not  had  to  face  the  opposition  of  the  clergy,  who 
held  back  the  people  from  the  act  of  folly  that  was  in 
preparation.  The  Insurrection  of  1848  ended  miserably 
in  the  tragi-comedy  of  the  cabbage  garden  at  Ballingarry. 
Abandoned  by  his  improvised  troops,  that  strange  leader 
of  rebellion,  the  Protestant  landlord  and  aristocrat,  Smith 
O'Brien,  to  save  his  honour,  engaged  in  a  sort  of  skirmish 
with  a  small  body  of  police,  who  soon  had  him  in  their 
hands.  The  other  leaders  went  into  exile,  or  else  were 
thrown  into  prison. 

Thus  direly  and  pitifully  did  the  Young  Ireland  move- 
ment end  in  miscarriage.  Men  of  broad  mind  and  noble 
character,  of  proud  spirit  and  personal  courage,  had  brought 
it  into  being.  But  they  had  been  lacking  in  practical 
qualities.  They  had  no  appreciation  of  the  realities  of 
life.  The  more  violent  spirits  among  them  gained  a  com- 
plete empire  over  the  rest  and  led  them  astray.  The 
Young  Ireland  movement  was  not  a  revolutionary  one, 
and  yet  it  was  to  lead  to  revolution,  and  to  perish  through 
revolution.     It  had  been  a  reaction  against  O'Connell's 


70  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

opportunism  and  legality  ;  it  had  resisted  the  call  to  arms 
of  the  extreme  party.  But  carried  along  by  the  explosion 
of  ideas  in  1848,  Young  Ireland  found  itself  compelled  t^ 
force  of  circumstances  and  by  considerations  of  honour 
to  have  recourse  itself  to  arms,  at  the  most  inopportune 
time  and  under  the  most  unfavourable  conditions,  or  else 
lie  under  the  charge  of  cowardice  or  treason.  Now 
"  Young  Ireland  "  was  dead.  Its  leaders  were  scattered 
to  the  four  winds  of  the  heaven.  Even  its  ideas  seemed 
to  have  perished.  In  reality  they  survived  the  wreck,  and 
reappeared  at  a  later  date,  when  the  people  had  recovered 
from  the  dreadful  crisis  through  which  they  were  now  to 
pass,  between  1847  and  I849 — a  crisis  in  winch  the  Irish 
nation  seemed  destined  to  be  finally  extinguished — the 
Great  Famine. 


III. — The  Great  Famine  and  Emigration.1 

We  must  go  back  a  little  in  order  to  indicate  briefly 
the  causes  of  the  Great  Famine  of  1847.  The  enormous 
increase  of  the  population  of  Ireland  in  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth,  and  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was 
a  striking  phenomenon.2  From  1782  on,  and  especially 
during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  when  Ireland  had  become  the 
granary  of  England,  the  country  had  passed  through  a 
period  of  great  prosperit}-.  Taking  advantage  of  this, 
the  landlords  had  multiplied  the  number  of  small  holdings 
on  their  estates,  as  by  this  subdivision  they  increased  the 
number  of  their  voters  and  raised  the  total  of  their  rents. 

1  The  Great  Famine  and  The  Period  of  Emigration  : — See  especially, 
W.  P.  O  Brien,  The  Great  Famine,  Dublin.  O'Rourke,  History  of  the 
Great  Irish  Famine,  3rd  Ed.,  Dublin,  1902.  Sir  Chas.  E.  Trevelj-an, 
The  Irish  Crisis  (Edinburgh  Review,  1S4S).  Report  of  the  Census  Com- 
missioners,  1S51.  John  Mitchel,  Jail  Journal.  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  The 
League  of  North  and  South,  London,  18S6.  Writings  of  J.  F.  Lalor, 
edited  by  John  O'Leary.  Lord  Dufferin,  Irish  Emigration  and  the 
Tenure  of  Irish  Land,  London,  18,67.  Nassau  Senior,  Journals' 
Conversations  and  Essays  relating  to  Ireland,  1868. 

2  In  1788  the  population  was  estimated  for  the  first  time  at  more  than 
four  millions  (4,040,000).     In  1845  it  was  reckoned  at  nearly  8  millions. 


SINCE   THE    UNION  71 

As  a  result,  the  population  increased  rapidly,  and  con- 
tinued to  increase  notwithstanding  a  gradual  change  in 
economic  conditions.  On  the  conclusion  of  the  war  the 
rise  in  prices  was  succeeded  by  a  fall.  Tillage  ceased  to 
pay,  and  the  landlords  were  naturally  tempted  to  turn  the 
agricultural  lands  into  pasture.  A  campaign  of  "  Clear- 
ances "  was  inaugurated  and  continued  without  inter- 
mission. It  became  especially  vigorous  when  by  the  Act 
of  1829  the  smaller  peasants  were  deprived  of  the  right  of 
voting.  The  tenantry  were  driven  out,  and  their  houses 
razed  to  the  ground.  Holdings  were  "  consolidated." 
Parliament  looked  on  complacently,  and  passed  laws  to 
make  ejectment  an  inexpensive  process.  As  there  were  no 
industries  to  relieve  the  pressure,  the  people  crowded  in 
upon  such  remnants  of  the  soil  as  were  left  to  them. 
They  were  compelled  to  pay  famine  rents,  which,  as  John 
Stuart  Mill  put  it,  scarcely  left  them  enough  to  stave  off 
death  from  starvation.  They  lived  on  potatoes  as  the 
Chinese  live  on  rice.  Were  a  bad  harvest  to  come  a 
catastrophe  must  inevitably  ensue. 

There  came  not  one  bad  harvest,  but  three  in  succession. 
In  the  autumn  of  1845  three-quarters  of  the  potato  crop 
was  destroyed  in  a  few  days  by  a  form  of  blight  hitherto 
unknown.  In  1846  and  1847  the  whole  potato  crop 
perished.  From  1846  to  1849  famine  reigned  throughout 
the  land.  No  sooner  did  the  plague  touch  them  than  the 
people  seemed  plunged  in  a  sort  of  stupor. 

"  It  was  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  the  cottier  and  his 
little  family  seated  on  the  garden  fence  gazing  all  day 
long  in  moody  silence  at  the  blighted  plot  that  had  been 
their  last  hope.  Nothing  would  rouse  them.  You  spoke  : 
they  answered  not  ;  you  tried  to  cheer  them  :  they  shook 
their  heads.  "3 

It  is  better,  said  John  Mitchel,  to  perish  by  the  bayonets 
of  England  than  by  her  laws.  But  what  were  men  to  do, 
when  death  was  all  around  them,  at  work  or  at  home,  in 
the  houses  and  in  the  fields,  on  the  mountains  and  in  the 

3  A.  M.  Sullivan,  New  Ireland,  Ch.  VI. 


72  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

glens  ?  The  workhouses,  where  no  one  had  hitherto  thought 
of  setting  foot,  were  soon  filled.  At  Westport  three 
thousand  persons  sought  admission  in  one  day,  though 
there  was  no  longer  any  room.  One  morning  the  portei 
found  the  corpses  of  eight  persons  who  had  died  duiing 
the  night,  leaning  against  the  railings. 

The  "  Unions,''  from  which  relief  might  be  obtained,  were 
soon  bankrupt.  Some  of  them  refused  to  do  anything. 
In  many  places,  as  Mr.  Tuke,  a  philanthropist,  tells  us, 
the  roads  "  became  as  charnel  houses."  Drivers  seldom 
went  out  without  seeing  dead  bodies  strewn  along  the 
roadside,  without  passing  over  them  if  it  were  night. 
Another  eye-witness  informs  us  that  in  his  district  on 
opening  the  front  door  in  the  morning  it  was  "  a  com- 
mon occurrence  to  find  the  corpse  of  some  victim  leaning 
against  it,  who  in  the  night-time  had  rested  in  its  shelter." 
All  rites,  both  civil  and  religious,  had  to  be  given  up.  There 
were  no  coffins  for  the  dead.  The  corpses  were  hastily 
carried  off  in  a  coffin  with  a  movable  bottom,  from  which 
they  were  thrown  straight  into  a  common  grave. 4  Those 
who  escaped  the  famine  succumbed  to  the  fever.  Priests 
and  doctors  died  by  the  hundred.  Well-to-do  families 
caught  the  malady  and  perished  with  none  to  aid  them. 
It  was  a  case  of  each  man  for  himself.  All  who  could,  fled 
the  country.  The  Irish  turned  their  eyes  towards  America 
as  the  Jews  of  old  towards  Jerusalem.  But  emigrants  had 
to  endure  sufferings  almost  as  bitter  as  those  who  remained 
behind.  The  State  at  first  exercised  no  supervision,  and 
the  emigrants  were  crowded  into  "  coffin  ships,"  in  which 
they  died  in  thousands  during  the  course  of  the  voyage. 
How  many  of  her  citizens,  one  naturally  asks,  did  Ireland 
lose  during  those  terrible  years  ?  The  number  of  those  who 
perished  of  hunger  has  been  reckoned  at  729,033,  "  far 
more,"  as  John  Bright  said,  "  than  ever  fell  by  the  sword 
in  any  war  England  ever  waged."  5 

4  O'Rourke,  History  of  the  Great  Irish  Famine,  pp.  384,  393. 

5  The  figure  is  given  by  Mr.  T.  W.  Grimshaw,  Registrar -General,  in 
Facts  and  Figures  about  Ireland,  Dublin,  1893.      The  Census  Commis- 


SINCE   THE   UNION  73 

The  number  of  deaths  among  the  emigrants  has  been 
reckoned  at  17  per  cent.,  that  is,  about  200,000.  Lastly, 
it  is  calculated  that  from  1846  to  185 1  1,240,737  emi- 
grants left  Ireland.6  This  was  but  the  beginning  of  that 
emigration,  which  has  never  ceased  down  to  the  present 
time. 

Could  the  Great  Famine  have  been  avoided,  it  may  be 
asked  ?  It  is  important  to  remember  that  the  disease 
only  affected  a  single  crop,  the  potato  crop  ;  all  others 
were  up  to  the  average  both  in  quantity  and  in  quality. 
In  1846  food  stuffs  and  cattle  to  the  value  of  £41,000,000 
were  produced  on  Irish  soil  ;  in  1847  food  stuffs  and 
cattle  to  the  value  of  £38,500,000.  During  the  most 
critical  period  of  the  famine,  in  1846  and  1847,  Ireland 
exported  corn,  barley,  oats  and  cattle  in  far  greater 
quantities  than  would  have  sufficed  to  feed  the  people.  7 
It  was  not  want  of  food  stuffs  that  caused  the  famine. 
But  the  produce  of  the  land  was  used  up  in  paying  the 
landlord's  rent.  There  was  famine  in  the  midst  of  plenty. 
It  was  an  artificial  famine,  for,  as  Mitchel  declared  : 8  "  The 
exact  complement  of  a  comfortable  family  dinner  in 
England  is  a  Coroner's  inquest  in  Ireland — verdict  :  star- 
vation." 

The  Government  made  some  attempt  to  avert  the  evil. 
But  it  did  very  little,  and  that  little  it  did  very  ill.  Its 
actions  were  characterised  by  stinginess  and  an  entire 
failure  to  appreciate  the  situation.  A  blind  attachment 
to  the  doctrines  of  the  Manchester  school,  which  was 
then  at  the  beginning  of  its  reign,  made  even  its  be?t 
intentioned  efforts  fail  in  their  object.  Sir  Robert  Peel 
began,  after  the  English  fashion,  by  introducing  a 
Coercion  Act.  He  then  organised  provision  depots  and 
public  relief  works,  and  in  the  spring  of  1846,  on  the  eve 

sioners'  Report  of  185  1,  p.  246,  gives  985,366  deaths,  from  1846  to  1851. 
Blight's  phrase  was  used  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  2;th  August, 
1848. 

6  O'Rourke,  op.  cit.  p.  499.     Grimshaw,  loc.  cit. 

7  T.  P.  O  Connor,  Parnell  Movement,  Ch.  IV.    Perraud,  op.  cit.  I.,  275. 

8  Jail  Journal,  Introduction. 


74  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

of  his  fall,  passed  his  famous  measure,  establishing  free 
trade  in  corn.  England  alone  gained  by  this  enactment. 
It  would  have  been  of  more  importance  to  Ireland  that 
the  export  of  corn  should  be  prohibited  than  that  its 
import  should  be  freely  permitted.  His  successor,  Lord 
John  Russell,  stopped  the  great  relief  works,  but  later 
re-established  them,  making  it  a  condition,  however,  that 
none  of  them  should  be  of  a  reproductive  nature,  that  is 
to  say,  of  public  benefit.  Hills  were  excavated,  and  the 
excavations  filled  up.  Highways  were  constructed  that 
led  nowhere.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  were 
thus  employed  at  ridiculously  small  wages  (as  low  as 
5d.  a  day  in  some  cases)  under  the  control  of  10,000 
officials.  But  the  people  were  too  exhausted  to  work. 
The  workmen  in  many  cases  on  taking  up  the  pick  or 
shovel,  were  seized  with  illness  and  fell  to  the  ground 
never  to  rise.  More  than  £10,000,000  sterling  was  spent 
on  these  woiks.  The  money  was  not,  indeed,  given  to  the 
local  authorities,  but  lent  to  them  on  the  security  of  the 
rates.9 

It  should  be  added  that  the  English  public  showed  them- 
selves more  generous  than  the  Government.  Subscriptions 
were  opened  all  over  England,  as  also  on  the  Continent. 
Relief  committees  and  soup  kitchens  were  established  in 
each  district.  In  1847  the  Government  agreed  to  con- 
tribute towards  their  upkeep.  This  proved  the  only 
practical  method  of  helping  the  afflicted  people.  It  was 
regrettable  that  these  soup  kitchens  were  too  often  used 
as  instruments  of  proselytism,  and  in  other  cases  carried 
on  with  such  a  lack  of  dignity  and  control  that,  in  the 
words  of  an  eye-witness,  "  the  feeding  of  dogs  in  a  kennel 
was  far  more  decent  and  orderly." 

The  Great  Famine  was  an  event  entailing  the  gravest 
consequences — a  turning-point  in  the  history  of  Ireland. 
Not  long  before  it  an  English  official,  when  questioned 
about  the  discontent  of  the  Irish  peasantry,  said  that  so 
far  from  being  discontented,  "  they  were  as  gay  as  larks, 

9  New  Ireland,  Ch.  VI. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  75 

damnably  happy  in  their  wretchedness."  From  this  date 
the  gay,  laughing,  generous,  hospitable,  open-handed, 
open-hearted  Irishman  of  tradition  ceased  to  exist.  All 
joy  had  left  the  people  ;  cross-road  dances  and  open-air 
sports  became  things  of  the  past.  Men  grew  to  be  ego- 
istic pessimists,  and  the  hatred  of  England  and  of  the 
landlords  sank  deeper  than  ever  into  their  souls.  The 
land  question  in  its  modern  form  first  took  shape  about 
this  time.  From  1848  on,  James  Fintan  Lalor  began,  in 
the  Irish  Felon,  to  preach  the  extermination  of  the  land- 
lords and  the  dividing  up  of  the  lands.  At  this  time,  too, 
began  that  great  exodus  of  emigrants  from  Ireland  which 
has  been  draining  the  country  and  exhausting  the  race  for 
more  than  half  a  century.  It  continued  when  the  famine 
had  ended,  because  the  causes  that  brought  it  about 
— the  evictions  and  the  great  clearances — also  continued. 
"  The  Irish  are  flying  with  a  vengeance,"  declared  the 
Times  triumphantly  about  this  period.  From  185 1  to  i860 
a  million  and  a  half  Irishmen  emigrated  to  that  "  greater 
Ireland  "  whither  they  carried  their  hatred  of  England 
and  their  desire  for  vengeance.  Henceforward  America 
was  to  exercise  a  most  important  influence  on  the  affairs 
of  Ireland.  From  America  was  soon  to  come  a  new 
element  in  the  Irish  question — Fenianism. 


IV. — Fenianism.  l 

It  was  the  name  of  Fenianism  that  was  new  rather  than 
the  thing  itself.  In  reality  Fenianism  was  but  a  revival 
and  re-organisation,  on  a  more  systematic  plan,  with 
improved  resources,  and  above  all,  with  American  assist- 
ance, of  that  "  Physical  Force  "  policy,  which  had  at  all 
times  exercised  an  influence  on  Irish  politics.     This  had 

1  See  especially,  John  O  Leary,  Fenianism — Fenians  and  Fenianism, 
London,  1896.  Gerald  Fitzgibbon,  Ireland  in  1868,  London,  1868. 
Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  The  League  of  North  and  South,  London,  1886.  Speeches 
from  the  Dock,  edited  by  T.  D.  and  A.  M.  Sullivan.  Cf.  G.  Sigerson, 
Modern  Ireland,  London,  1868. 


76  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

been  the  policy  of  the  revolutionaries  in  1798  and  1848  ; 
it  may  even  be  said  to  have  been  that  of  the  agrarian 
secret  societies  such  as  the  Whiteboys  and  the  Ribbon- 
men.2 

During  the  fifteen  years  or  so  that  followed  the  Great 
Famine  and  the  Rebellion  of  1848,  the  country,  maimed 
and  exhausted,  and  without  any  organisation,  employing 
methods  within  the  law,  remained  sunk  in  a  condition  of 
torpor  and  demoralisation.  Corruption  reigned  supreme 
in  public  life  ;  the  people  could  do  nothing.  The  clergy 
were  under  the  domination  of  a  reactionary  prelate,  and 
took  little  part  in  public  life,  save  to  support  the  Whig 
candidate  who  was  in  favour  for  the  moment  at  elections 
— a  "Castle"  Catholic,  or  even  a  Protestant,  who 
usually  regarded  politics  merely  as  a  means  to  promotion. 
Of  the  Young  Irelanders  of  former  days  but  a  few  scattered 
individuals  remained  who  had  been  converted  to  con- 
stitutionalism since  the  failure  of  1848.  One  of  these  was 
Gavan  Duffy,  who  had  tried  to  revive  the  national  spirit 
in  185 1.  He  had  united  North  and  South  in  an  agrarian 
league — the  Irish  Tenant  League — and  had  endeavoured 
to  form  an  independent  parliamentary  party,  which  might 
constitute  a  national  opposition.  Every  member  of  the 
party  was  to  pledge  himself  to  accept  neither  honour  nor 
emolument  from  the  Government. 

But  a  few  months  after  its  formation  the  new  party  was 
destroyed,  through  the  treachery  of  two  of  its  members — 
the  famous  Sadleir  and  Keogh,  a  pair  of  political  ad- 
venturers whom  the  Government  had  little  difficulty  in 
buying  over.  It  was  a  painful  sign  of  the  times  that, 
notwithstanding  their  treachery,  the  majority  of  the 
clergy,  under  the  influence  of  Cardinal  Cullen,  continued 
to  support  them  till  their  fall. 

In  1858  the  apparent  calm  was  troubled  by  a  trifling 

2  The  Ribbon  Society  had  been  the  most  important  among  the 
secret  societies  that  took  part  in  the  agrarian  struggle  in  Ireland  at 
the  time  of  the  Tithe  War  (1830-1838).  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
century  it  had  absorbed  most  of  the  other  organisations.  See  Davitt, 
Fall  of  Feudalism,  p.  40  et  seq. 


SINCE   THE   UNION  77 

disturbance,  which  no  one  took  seriously.  The  members 
of  a  secret  society,  the  "  Phoenix  Society  "  had  organised 
a  small  conspiracy  at  Skibbereen  in  the  County  Cork. 
The  Government  found  out  the  plot  and  quickly  put  it 
down.  Such  was  the  condition  of  general  prostration 
that  the  affair  excited  derision  rather  than  astonishment. 
But  there  was  more  in  it  than  appeared.  The  real  leader 
at  Skibbereen,  James  Stephens,  an  old  '48  rebel,  had 
escaped.  From  this  time  forward  he  devoted  himself, 
with  the  assistance  of  O'Donovan  Rossa,  O'Leary  and 
Kickham,  to  preparing  a  more  widely  extended  move- 
ment, under  the  title  of  the  "  Irish  Republican  Brother- 
hood." In  America  another  revolutionary  named 
O'Mahony  proceeded  to  organise  a  militia,  which  he 
called  the  Fenians,  the  name  given  to  the  ancient  warriors 
in  the  time  of  Fionn  and  his  companions.  The  Catholic 
clergy  denounced  the  movement.  The  constitutionalists 
opposed  it.  But  it  continued  to  make  headway.  It  had 
accomplices  in  the  army,  in  the  police,  even  in  Dublin 
Castle.  One  small  event  that  occurred  in  1861  showed 
the  progress  it  had  made.  Cardinal  Cullen  had  refused  to 
allow  the  coffin  of  Terence  MacManus,  one  of  the  revolu- 
tionary leaders,  to  be  placed  in  church  ;  50,000  men 
followed  it  to  the  graveside  in  Dublin.  On  the  conclusion 
of  the  American  Civil  War  a  number  of  soldiers  and 
officers  came  to  offer  their  services  to  the  Irish  rebels. 
Matters  seemed  to  be  coming  to  a  head.  As  in  1848,  the 
Government  forestalled  the  conspirators,  and  on  Septem- 
ber 16,  1865,  threw  the  Fenian  leaders  into  prison,  and 
seized  their  papers,  together  with  their  organ,  The  Irish 
People.  But  the  ground  was  mined  underneath  the 
Government's  feet.  The  Fenians  had  accomplices  every- 
where. Stephens  made  his  escape  and  left  the  country. 
In  face  of  the  unknown  danger,  resolution  began  to  weaken. 
The  Government  became  troubled.  Martial  law  was  pro- 
claimed. Scattered  risings  took  place,  which  were  of 
course,  easily  put  down.  An  American  ship,  the  Erin's 
Hope,  arrived  with  a  cargo  of  arms  and  a  body  of  soldiers  on 


78  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

board.  Both  men  and  arms  were  captured.  For  three 
years  the  country  continued  in  a  state  of  tragi-comic 
terror  of  Fenians.  In  England  Cler  ken  well  prison  was 
blown  up  by  dynamite,  and  some  inoffending  people 
in  the  neighbourhood  were  killed.  A  raid  upon  Chester 
Castle  proved  a  failure.  At  Manchester  the  Fenians 
stopped  the  "  Black  Maria  "  in  which  two  of  their  brethren 
were  being  carried  off.  Sergeant  Brett,  the  officer  in  com- 
mand of  the  van,  had  his  brains  blown  out  while  they  were 
attempting  to  force  the  lock  of  the  van.  For  this  five 
men  were  arrested.  The  Press  and  public  opinion  of 
England  cried  out  for  vengeance.  They  were  given  a 
trial  in  which  resentment  played  quite  as  large  a  part  as 
the  desire  for  justice.  Justice  and  resentment  were  alike 
satisfied  by  the  triple  execution  of  those  whom  the  Irish 
still  call  the  "  Manchester  Martyrs." 

Some  criminal  follies  ;  a  few  scattered  and  unfortunate 
attempts  at  crime,  that  were  severely  repressed — is  that, 
some  one  will  ask,  the  whole  of  Fenianism  ?  The  judg- 
ment is  natural.  Yet  this  poor  programme  proved  suffi- 
cient to  change  the  whole  course  of  events  in  Ireland,  for 
it  made  men  afraid.  England  had  been  living  in  con- 
tented optimism,  when  "  like  a  thunderclap  in  a  clear 
sky,"  3  Fenianism  broke  out.  The  alarm  aroused  public 
opinion  and  frightened  the  English.  Men  began  to  under- 
stand the  profound  misery  in  which  Ireland  was  sunk,  and 
the  necessity  for  repairing  the  wrongs  of  the  past.  The 
Act  of  1867  had  just  then  sent  to  Parliament  a  body  of 
members  chosen  on  a  wider  and  more  democratic  fran- 
chise. Almost  immediately  afterwards  Gladstone  secured 
the  passing  of  the  Bill  for  the  "  Disestablishment  "  of  the 
Anglican  Church  in  Ireland,  and  the  first  Land  Act  (1869- 
1870).  To  all  appearances  Fenianism  had  been  a  miserable 
fiasco.  In  reality  it  had  succeeded  where  O'Connell  and 
Young  Ireland  had  failed.  It  had  opened  a  new  era  in 
the  history  of  Ireland.  The  period  of  concessions  and 
reforms  had  at  last  arrived. 

3  John  Stuart  Mill,  England  and  Ireland. 


SINCE    THE    UNION  79 


V. — Parnell.1 

But  reforms  were  not  to  be  won  quickly  or  easily. 
From  1874  to  1880  a  Conservative  ministry  was  in  power, 
and  Parliament  refused  every  request  made  by  Irishmen 
one  after  the  other.  Meantime,  public  opinion  in  Ireland 
was  developing.  In  1870  an  association  had  been  formed 
to  demand  Home  Government,  or,  as  it  was  soon  afterwards 
styled,  Home  Rule — a  sort  of  compromise  between 
Repeal  (that  is  to  say,  independence)  and  the  Union.  It 
was  a  sign  of  the  times  that  all  parties  were  represented 
in  it,  even  the  Orangemen  and  the  Protestants,  who 
constituted  the  English  garrison.  The  latter  were  in- 
fluenced not  so  much  by  belief  in  the  new  idea  as  by 
hatred  of  Gladstone's  policy.  They  soon  abandoned  the 
movement,  just  as  they  had  done  in  O'Connell's  time  in 
the  early  days  of  Repeal.  Whiggery,  on  the  other  hand, 
which,  thanks  to  the  support  of  the  clergy,  had  hitherto 
been  the  dominant  policy,  now  rapidly  declined.  The 
survivors  and  successors  of  Repeal  and  of  Young  Ireland 
were  now  formed  into  an  independent  party,  the  "  Nation- 
alist "  party,  which  was  in  alliance  with  the  English 
Radicals.  Its  progress  was  rapid.  In  1874,  under  the 
leadership  of  Isaac  Butt,  a  man  of  great  ability  but  weak 

1  It  is  impossible  to  mention  even  the  important  works  that  have 
been  published  about  the  period  between  1870  and  1893,  and  especially 
about  Parnell.  One  of  the  best  is  the  masterly  study  of  Parnell  by 
M.  Augustin  Filon  in  Profils  Anglais,  Paris,  1893.  Cf.  T.  P.  O  Connor, 
The  Parnell  Movement,  London,  1886.  R.  Barry  O'Brien,  Life  of  C.  S. 
Parnell,  London,  1898.  M.  Davitt,  The  Fall  of  Feudalism  in  Ireland, 
London  and  New  York,  1904  (see  p.  651,  et  seq. — a  powerful  portrait 
ol|  Parnell.)  George  Moore,  Parnell  and  His  Island,  London,  1887. 
Parnellism  and  Crime,  Reprinted  from,  the  Times,  London,  1887.  Diary 
of  the  Parnell  Commission,  London,  1887.  Le  Caron,  25  Years  in  the 
Secret  Service,  London,  1892.  Ireland  under  Coercion.  The  Diary  of 
an  American,  by  Hurlbert,  Edinburgh,  1888.  Baron  de  Mandat- 
Grancey,  Chez  Paddy,  Paris,  1887.  Pour  V Irlande;  Réponse  à  Chez 
Paddy,  by  E.  Piche,  a  Canadian  priest,  Paris.  Ph.  Daryl,  les 
Anglais  en  Irlande,  Paris,  1887.  Charles  Russell  (Lord  Russell  of 
Kllowen),  New  Views  on  Ireland,  London,  1880.  William  O'Brien, 
Recollections,  London,  1905.  Cf.  The  Annual  Register  and  the  numerous 
publications  of  the  Irish  Unionist  Alliance,  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic 
Union,  the  Irish  Press  Agency,  etc. 


8o  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

character,  it  obtained  for  the  first  time  a  majority  at  the 
General  Election  in  Ireland.  In  1878  it  found  a  leader 
of  supreme  ability  in  the  person  of  Charles  Stewart  Par- 
nell. 

Parnell  shares  with  O'Connell  the  glory  of  being  the 
greatest  of  Irish  leaders.  Like  O'Connell,  he  was  a  land- 
lord, and  his  family  traditions  were  those  of  an  aristocrat. 
Like  him,  too,  he  was  overbearing,  even  despotic  in 
temperament.  But  in  all  else  Parnell  was  the  very 
opposite  of  the  "  Liberator."  The  Protestant  leader  of  a 
Catholic  people,  he  won  popularity  in  Ireland,  without 
being  at  all  times  either  understood  or  personally  liked. 
In  outward  appearance  he  had  nothing  of  the  Irishman, 
nothing  of  the  "  Celt,"  about  him.  He  was  cold,  distant 
and  unexpansive  in  manner,  and  had  more  followers 
than  friends.2  His  speech  was  not  that  of  a  great  orator. 
Yet  it  was  singularly  powerful  and  penetrating,  with  here 
and  there  brilliant  flashes  that  showed  profound  wisdom. 
A  man  of  few  words,  of  strength  rather  than  breadth  of 
mind — his  political  ideals  were  often  uncertain  and  con- 
fused— he  was  better  fitted  to  be  a  combatant  than  a 
constructive  politician.  Beyond  all  else,  he  was  a  Parlia- 
mentary fighter  of  extraordinary  ability,  perfectly  self- 
controlled,  cold  and  bitter,  powerful  at  hitting  back.  It 
was  precisely  these  English  qualities  that  enabled  him  to 
attain  such  remarkable  success  in  his  struggle  with  the 
English.  Pride  was  perhaps  a  stronger  motive  with  him 
than  patriotism  or  faith.  After  the  Divorce  Case,  when 
a  temporary  retirement  might  have  saved  him  and  saved 

2  "  This  was,  perhaps,  the  Parnell  that  strangers  saw,"  said  one,  who 
had  known  him  intimately,  to  the  writer.  "  But  at  bottom,  with  his 
intimates,  no  one  was  more  warm-hearted,  more  full  of  grace  and 
charm  .  .  .  To  those  near  him,  he  showed  a  simple  cordiality.  He 
inherited  from  his  mother  many  Celtic  traits  of  character.  He  is  called 
proud,  but  he  showed  sufficient  patriotism  to  leave  his  caste  and 
espouse  the  popular  cause  at  a  time  when  his  pride  had  nothing  to 
gain  from  so  doing.  His  love  of  Ireland  was  equalled  by  his  hatred 
of  English  Rule  in  Ireland,  a  hatred  like  the  saeva  indignatio  of  Swift. 
In  Parliament  his  oratory  was  as  fiery  in  substance,  as  it  was  restrained 
in  form.  You  did  not  know  him  until  you  saw  the  flame  that  seemed 
to  leap  out  of  each  of  his  words  ;  he  held  friends  and  enemies 
breathlessly  in  thrall,  by  the  mastery  of  his  vengeful  utterance." 


SINCE   THE   UNION  81 

Home  Rule,  he  refused  to  take  this  course.  The 
concession  would  have  hurt  his  pride  too  much,  and  the 
same  self-centred  obstinacy  that  had  so  often  led  him  to 
victory  in  the  end  proved  the  cause  of  his  destruction. 

Until  he  turned  traitor  to  his  good  fortune,  Parnell 
was  exceptionally  favoured  by  circumstances.  He  had  to 
deal  with  an  England  still  stirred  by  Fenianism  and 
disposed  to  conciliation.  He  received  from  the  aged 
Biggar  the  weapon  of  Parliamentary  obstruction.  He 
took  out  of  the  timid  hands  of  Isaac  Butt  a  united  and 
disciplined  party.  The  two  most  striking  points  in 
"  Parnellism  "  were,  indeed,  suggested  to  Parnell  himself 
by  Michael  Davitt  in  187g.  First  Davitt  proposed  that 
he  should  yoke  the  political  question  to  the  Land 
Question,  so  that  the  Home  Rule  cause  might  benefit  by 
the  strength  of  agrarian  agitation.  It  was  a  happy 
opportunism.  He  next  suggested  that  in  his  constitutional 
struggle  Parnell  should  tacitly,  without  any  formal 
compact,  accept  the  aid  of  the  more  moderate  members 
of  the  Revolutionary  Party,  those  Irish  and,  more 
especially,  American  extremists,  whose  co-operation  in 
the  agrarian  battle  Davitt  and  Devoy  had  lately  secured. 3 

Hitherto  Constitutionalists  and  Revolutionaries  had 
ever  been  at  daggers  drawn.  Henceforward  the  two 
movements  were  to  advance  along  parallel  Unes,  and 
victory  would  be  assured.  The  step  was  certainly  a 
dangerous  one.  No  doubt  Constitutionalism  would 
derive  new  force  from  the  assistance  of  the  Clan-na-Gael, 
and  from  contributions  of  American  money.  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  must  naturally  be  more  or  less  com- 
promised. Constitutionalists  would  be  charged  with 
complicity  in  crime,  and  were  bound  to  lose  their  power 
of  preventing  outrages.  Nevertheless  Parnell  acquiesced 
in  the  new  plans,  and  from  that  moment  began  the 
famous  and  terrible  crisis  of  the  years  1880  to  1893, 
that  great   revolution  in  which  the   Irish  nation  came 

3  See  Davitt,  Fall  of  Feudalism,  p.  116  et  seq.  for  the  history  of  the 
New  Departure. 

G 


82  HISTORICAL   INTRODUCTION 

within  an  ace  of  winning  the  day,  and  from  which  it  was 
destined  to  come  forth  sadly  maimed,  yet  still  living. 
In  reality  there  were  two  successive  crises,  which 
followed  the  same  evolution,  and  exhibit  the  strangest 
similarities.  The  first  began  in  1879.  The  country  was 
then  threatened  by  famine,  as  a  result  of  three  bad 
harvests.  On  top  of  them  came  an  eviction  campaign. 
The  situation  was  grave.  It  was  a  matter  of  life  and 
death  for  the  country.  Were  the  defenceless  people 
again  to  perish  resignedly,  crushed  between  the  famine 
and  the  landlords,  as  had  happened  in  1847  ?  But  this 
time  they  were  armed  for  the  contest.  Parnell  and 
Davitt  had  just  founded  the  Land  League  to  maintain 
the  struggle  against  landlordism.  In  1880  the  House 
of  Lords  rejected  a  Bill,  of  a  character  favourable  to  the 
tenants,  which  was  the  first  attempt  to  deal  with  the 
situation.  The  Land  League  branches  which  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  more  violent  spirits  retaliated  by  boy- 
cotting and  resistance  at  evictions.  The  Moonlighters 
spread  crime  and  terror  throughout  the  country.  This 
was  the  result  of  the  evictions,  the  fatal  accompaniment 
of  excess  in  agrarian  agitation.  As  a  consequence, 
Gladstone  hastened  to  pass  at  the  same  time  as  the  Land 
Act  of  1881  (which  the  Irish  members  committed  the 
error  of  opposing)  a  severe  Coercion  Act,  which  Forster, 
the  Chief  Secretary,  put  into  operation  with  fatal 
brutality.  Instead  of  aiming  at  the  real  criminals,  he 
attacked  the  constitutional  organisation,  the  Land 
League.  He  tried  to  put  down  all  agitation.  The  League 
was  suppressed,  but  its  place  was  filled  by  the  Ladies' 
Land  League.  Six  or  seven  hundred  persons  were  thrown 
into  gaol,  and  Parnell  himself  was  arrested.  His  lieu- 
tenants then  published  their  celebrated  No-Rent  Mani- 
festo, which  came  too  late,  and  failed.  The  Moonlighters 
and  Ribbonmen  committed  more  outrages  ;  the  landlords 
carried  out  more  evictions  than  ever.  Crime  increased, 
and  anarchy  increased  with  it.  Coercion  had  been 
directed  against  the  constitutional  agitation.     The  result 


SINCE   THE   UNION  83 

was  that  it  had  left  the  field  open  for  anarchy.  At  last 
the  English  were  stirred.  In  the  month  of  April,  1882, 
after  two  years  of  social  and  agrarian  strife, — the  heroic 
period  of  Parnellism — Gladstone  put  forward  terms  of 
peace,  and  entered  into  negotiations  with  Parnell,  who 
was  then  imprisoned  in  Kilmainham.  This  "  Kilmainham 
Treaty,"  though  condemned  by  the  more  advanced 
spirits  in  the  Land  League  as  being  a  compromise,  was 
in  reality  a  triumph  for  Parnell  and  the  moderate  party. 
It  marked  the  definite  failure  of  coercion,  and  meant 
certain  victory  for  the  Irish.  Parnell  was  proclaimed 
the  "  uncrowned  king  "  of  Ireland,  and  Gladstone  and 
the  English  Liberals  became  subservient  to  him.  But 
his  triumph  was  short-lived.  The  tragic  murder  of  Lord 
Frederick  Cavendish,  the  messenger  of  conciliation,  and 
Mr.  Under-Secretary  Burke  by  the  "  Invincibles,"  in 
the  Phoenix  Park  brought  it  to  an  abrupt  conclusion. 
Parnell  had  accepted  the  aid  of  those  extremists,  who 
were  prepared  to  co-operate  in  an  agitation  more  or  less 
within  the  law.  But  there  remained  the  other  section 
of  extremists,  who  were  opposed  to  such  co-operation, 
and  these  had  now  come  upon  the  scene  to  disturb  the 
feast.  Dublin,  and  the  whole  of  Ireland,  was  filled  with 
terror  and  alarm.  Parnell  made  up  his  mind  to  keep  clear 
of  agitation  by  violent  methods  ever  afterwards  ;  and 
such  was  the  horror  caused  by  the  Park  Murders,  that 
from  that  day  forward  the  graver  forms  of  crime  dis- 
appeared from  Ireland.4  Constitutional  agitation  had 
received  a  blow  from  which  it  only  slowly  revived.  Only 
under  the  rough  coercion  of  Lord  Spencer,  and  the 
wholesale  evictions  that  accompanied  it,  did  it  again 
show  signs  of  life. 

The  Land  League  was  revived  as  the  National  League, 
on  lines  at  once  more  moderate,  more  parliamentary,  and 
more  under  the  control  of  the  clergy.      In  Ulster  a  civil 

4  The  dynamitards  devoted  their  efforts  to  terrorising  England,  from 
1882  to  1885  ;  but  in  Ireland  organised  crime  on  any  large  scale 
disappeared. 


84  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

war  broke  out  between  Nationalists  and  Orangemen. 
It  took  two  years  to  put  down  the  agitation.  How  the 
crisis  ended  is  well  known.  In  1885-6  Liberal  and  Con- 
servative ministries  were  each  twice  in  power  ;  Mr. 
Gladstone  introduced  his  first  Home  Rule  Bill,  together 
with  a  general  Land  Purchase  Act.  But  it  was  sum- 
marily rejected  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  1886. 

The  second  crisis,  which  lasted  from  1886  to  1893, 
was  happily  of  a  less  tragic  character  than  the  earlier  one. 
In  its  main  lines  it  passed  through  the  same  phases. 
First  came  a  crisis  in  agriculture,  a  sudden  fall  in  prices, 
which  made  the  payment  of  rent  an  impossibility.  In 
September,  1886,  Parliament  threw  out  a  Bill  which 
Parnell  had  introduced  to  afford  temporary  relief.  At 
the  same  time  the  landlords  inaugurated  a  new  eviction 
campaign,  in  which  they  called  in  the  aid  of  the  troops. 
The  peasants  looked  around  for  someone  who  should 
fight  their  battle.  It  was  in  these  circumstances  that 
Parnell's  lieutenants  started  the  famous  "  Plan  oi 
Campaign,"  a  second  and  improved  edition  of  the  No- 
Rent  Manifesto  of  1881.  Parnell  and  the  League  took 
no  official  part  in  the  agitation,  but  furnished  the  funds 
for  it.  Matters  grew  worse  on  both  sides.  The  Unionist 
Government  gave  itself  up  to  a  policy  of  re-action.  In 
1887  Mr.  Balfour  secured  the  passing  of  a  Land  Bill  that 
partially  satisfied  the  tenants'  demand,  but  passed  at 
the  same  time  a  new  Crimes  Act  of  a  permanent  character. 
He  also  enforced  rigorous  coercion,  of  so  severe  a 
character,  that  its  only  result  was  to  stir  up  the 
Nationalists  to  further  efforts,  while  it  won  for  them  the 
sympathy  of  English  Radicals.  For  three  years  the 
agrarian  and  political  struggle  continued.  In  some 
points  5  the  "  Plan  of  Campaign  "  proved  a  failure,  but 

5  For  example,  on  the  property  of  Mr.  Smith  Barry,  at  Tipperary, 
whose  tenants  were  unfortunately  allowed  to  be  evicted,  the  idea  being 
to  build  a  "  New  Tipperary  "  for  them.  Many  mistakes  were  committed 
in  the  choice  of  points  of  attack  in  the  "  Plan  of  Campaign,"  and  in 
the  conduct  of  operations  in  the  land  war.  They  might,  perhaps,  have 
been  avoided,  had  Parnell  not  desired  to  keep  aloof,  and  to  restrain 
the  League  from  any  official  participation  in  the  operations. 


SINCE   THE    UNION  85 

it  succeeded  in  95  cases  out  of  no.  At  this  time  Parnell 
was  in  England,  defending  himself  against  an  attempt 
made  by  the  Tories  to  bring  about  his  political  ruin. 
The  Times,  in  its  famous  series  of  articles  on  Parnellism 
and  Crime,  accused  him  of  direct  complicity  in  the  crimes 
of  the  "  Invincibles,"  and  supported  the  charge  by 
forged  letters.  A  Special  Commission,  composed  of  his 
political  enemies,  was  appointed  to  try  him,  but  after 
long  months  of  inquiry  the  bottom  was  knocked  out  of 
the  accusation  by  the  confession  of  the  forger  Pigott. 
Notwithstanding  the  strictures  passed  upon  Parnell  in 
the  Report  of  the  Commission,  the  Irish  Leader  suddenly 
became  a  popular  hero  in  England.  He  entered  into  a 
still  closer  alliance  with  Gladstone.  The  two  discussed 
the  provisions  of  the  coming  Home  Rule  Bill  at  Hawarden. 
The  "  Union  of  Hearts  "  between  Ireland  and  Liberal 
England  was  an  accomplished  fact,  and  once  more  the 
victory  of  the  Irish  seemed  assured.  But  it  was  not  to 
be.  Like  a  thunderclap  came  the  Divorce  Case,  and 
Irish  hopes  and  the  Irish  leader  were  involved  in  the 
same  ruin.  .  .  .  What  followed  is  known  to  all.  The 
Irish  leader  was  repudiated  by  the  Liberal  Party  in 
England,  but  refused  to  quit  his  post.  The  Irish  them- 
selves, after  the  futile  Boulogne  negotiations,  abandoned 
Parnell,  who  died,  worn  out,  a  few  months  later  ;  and 
the  Parnellites,  who  were  only  a  minority  in  the  Par- 
liamentary Party,  also  found  themselves  deserted.  For 
ten  years  dissension  reigned  supreme  in  Ireland.  In 
England  Gladstone  returned  to  power,  and  passed  his 
Home  Rule  Bill  through  the  Commons  in  1893.  It  was 
at  once  thrown  out  by  the  Lords.  In  the  result,  by  the 
crisis  of  1880  to  1893,  the  Irish  gained  a  code  of  legislation 
favourable  to  the  farmers,  and  also  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing the  principle  of  land  purchase,  which  was  later  to 
bear  fruit.  Had  Parnell  remained  at  the  helm,  had 
Gladstone  been  a  younger  man,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
believe  that  they  might  likewise  have  won  Home  Rule. 
From  1895  to  1905  the  Conservative  Government,  indeed, 


86  !       HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

devoted  themselves  to  "  killing  Home  Rule  by  kindness,"6 
by  means  of  a  policy  of  cheap  concessions  judiciously 
mingled  with  coercion.  These  efforts,  however,  did  not 
succeed  either  in  conciliating  Ireland,  or  in  bringing 
back  union  to  the  Disunited  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland. 

VI. 

Let  us  now  look  backwards  and  try  to  appreciate  the  why 
and  wherefore  of  the  long  and  mournful  story  of  Ireland. 

Ireland  being  a  small  country,  situate  close  to  a  large 
one,  a  conflict  was  inevitable.  One  of  the  two  must 
infallibly  conquer  the  other.  Compared  with  her  neigh- 
bour, Ireland  was  poor  and  weak.  She  was  cut  off  by 
England  from  the  life  of  Europe.  Her  people  were 
idealistic,  unstable,  sentimental.  It  was  their  unhappy 
destiny  to  have  to  submit  to  the  imperious  and  selfish 
rule  of  the  Saxon.  They  have  all  along  refused  to  bend 
to  the  yoke.  Why,  then,  some  may  ask  with  Froude,,1 
if  they  had  not  the  strength  to  conquer,  did  they  not 
"  honourably  "  submit,  a  course  which  would  have  been 
in  their  real  interest.  Was  national  priae  or  race  an- 
tipathy the  cause  ?  It  may  be  answered  at  once  that 
they  were  not.  Had  Ireland  desired  to  submit,  she  could 
not  have  done  so.  England  did  not  leave  her  the  choice. 
Risings,  revolutions,  and  civil  wars  were  forced  upon  the 
country  from  century  to  century.  They  were  provoked 
by  massacres,  plantations,  and  persecutions  ;  by  the 
oppressions  of  landlords,  by  the  injustice  of  the  laws. 
It  was  England  herself,  it  was  the  English  in  Ireland 
that  made  the  Irish  rebels.  But  how  comes  it,  one  may 
ask,  that  after  so  long  an  agony  Ireland  still  survives, 
that  the  name  of  her  people  has  not  been  obliterated 

6  Killing  Home  Rule  with  kindness  was  the  policy  of  Mr.  Arthur 
Balfour  after  1890,  and  of  his  brother,  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour,  Chief 
Secretary,  from  1895  to  1900.  To  a  certain  extent,  it  was  also  that 
of  Mr.  George  Wyndham,  Chief  Secretary,  from  1900  to  1905.  (Cf. 
our  article  on  Ireland  and  British  Imperialism  in  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes  of  the  15th  May,  1903). 

1  The  English  in  Ireland.  I.,  6,  12. 


SINCE   THE    UNION  87 

from  the  pages  of  history  ?  The  reason  is  that  down  to 
the  eighteenth  century,  so  vigorous  was  her  race,  so 
powerful  the  influence  of  her  climate  and  of  her  pleasant 
nature,  so  great  the  charm  of  her  soul  2  on  the  souls  of 
the  new-comers,  that  Ireland  always  assimilated  her 
invaders.  "  Lord  !  "  said  the  poet  Spenser,  "  how  quickely 
doth  that  countrey  alter  mens'  natures."  England,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  lacking  in  the  first  duty  of  a  conqueror, 
which  is  to  legitimise  his  conquest  by  the  spread  of 
civilisation,  and  by  works  of  reparation.  This  is  a  truth 
that  none  can  fail  to  recognise.  "  Seven  centuries  of 
rapine  and  violence.  Carelessness  alternating  with 
ferocity.  Not  a  gleam  of  humanity,  nor  of  political 
wisdom.  Not  even  the  wisdom  of  the  peasant,  who  takes 
care  of  his  beast,  lest  it  perish."  3  Why,  then,  such 
long-continued  barbarity,  one  may  ask,  since  not  even 
Cromwell  himself  sought  the  complete  extermination 
of  the  Irish  ?  Why  was  no  honest  effort  ever  made  to 
conciliate  the  Irish  down  to  the  time  of  the  Union,  save, 
perhaps,  that  of  Hem  y  VIII.  ?  Why  were  tyranny, 
bloodshed,  and  persecution,  whether  by  legal  methods 
or  by  methods  of  violence,  the  only  policy  attempted  ; 
and  since  the  Union,  why  has  there  been  so  much  bad 
grace,  and  so  little  good  faith  in  dealing  with  Irish 
grievances  ?  Why  is  it  that  those  concessions  that  have 
been  made  since  1870  were  won  only  by  violent  methods, 
and  even  then  hampered  by  limitations  which  robbed 
them  of  all  merit,  if  not  of  all  value  ?  Filled  with  ambition, 
and  born  to  rule,  the  English,  from  the  moment  they  set 
foot  in  Ireland,  feeling  themselves  stronger  than  the 
rival  nation,  forthwith  neglected  and  despised  it,  as  a 
property  that  must  some  day  fall  in  to  them.  They 
contented  themselves  with  putting  a  stop  to  all  progress 
in  the  country,  leaving  Ireland  "  to  stew  in  her  own 
juice,"  as  an  Englishman  has  put  it.  They  founded 
their  rule  upon  Irish  dissensions,  instead  of  promoting 

2  Aug.  Filon,  Profils  Anglais,  Paris,  1893,  Chapter  on  John  Morley. 

3  John  M.  Robertson  (now  M.P.),  The  Saxon  and  the  Celt,  London, 
1897,  p.  313. 


88  HISTORICAL    INTRODUCTION 

goodwill  and  equal  justice.  Instead  of  devoting  them- 
selves to  organisation  and  to  the  development  of  the 
country,  they  abandoned  its  whole  government  to  a 
garrison  of  unscrupulous  adventurers.  Self-interest, 
rather  than  fanaticism,  was  the  motive  which  inspired 
those  Penal  Laws,  as  to  which  Hallam,  the  historian, 
has  declared  that  "to  have  exterminated  the  Catholics 
by  the  sword  or  expelled  them  like  the  Moriscos  of  Spain 
would  have  been  a  little  more  repugnant  to  Justice  and 
Humanity,  but  incomparably  more  politic."  Either 
herself,  or  in  the  person  of  her  representatives,  England 
exploited  Ireland  as  a  dependency,  a  conquered  country, 
from  which  nothing  need  be  feared,  from  which  nothing 
could  be  hoped  ;  a  country  that  was  done  for,  that  could 
never  revive,  and  towards  which  the  best  policy  to  pursue 
was  to  draw  from  it  as  large  a  tribute  as  possible,  of  men 
for  the  army,  and  of  money  for  the  Empire.  Thus,  when 
all  is  said,  the  Irish  policy  of  England  may,  perhaps, 
be  found  to  be  inspired  not  so  much  by  hatred  or  vin- 
dictiveness,  as  by  selfish  indifference,  narrowness  of  view, 
and  imperfect  understanding.  But  is  this  the  whole 
explanation  ?  Can  we  not  push  the  matter  a  stage 
further  ?  When  we  look  at  the  sequence  of  events  since 
the  Great  Famine  ;  when  we  recognise  that  England  has 
always  shrunk  from  taking  any  definite  or  decisive  step 
in  Ireland  ;  that  she  has  toyed  with  problems  without 
seriously  seeking  to  solve  them  ;  that  she  has  ever  been 
satisfied  to  exploit  the  sister  island  intellectually  and 
economically,  can  we  go  on  to  say  that  at  bottom  the 
English  (Gladstone  and  his  followers  always  excepted) 
have  been  influenced  by  the  idea  of  merely  marking  time 
till  the  sorely-stricken  nation  might  sink  into  dissolution  ; 
that  they  are  waiting  till,  when  Ireland  is  drained  of  her 
ancient  inhabitants — some  lost  by  emigration,  others  by 
Anglicisation — the  Irish  question  will,  in  measurable 
time,  disappear  of  its  own  accord  ?  The  solution  of  this 
question  we  leave  to  the  reader,  who,  having  read  the  in- 
troduction to  this  book,  has  the  patience  to  read  the  book. 


PART  I. 

POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL 
CONDITIONS1 

CHAPTER    I.— THE   TWO    IRELANDS  :  THE 
ENGLISH   COLONY 

History,  as  we  have  seen,  has  created  two  Ireiands  in 
Ireland.  These  exist,  indeed,  two  opposed  nations,  the 
one  super-imposed  on  the  other,  the  one  subject,  the 
other  master.  Above  is  the  British  colony  or  garrison — 
that  is  to  say,  the  newcomers,  the  latest  planters  in 
Ireland,  the  feudatories  of  England,  the  privileged  class, 
the  outlanders  of  Ireland,  or  the  English  in  Ireland,  as 

1  For  this  first  part  see  especially  besides  the  important  works  of 
G.  de  Beaumont  and  Cardinal  Perraud  already  quoted  : — 

Political  and  Social  works. — Ph  .  Daryl,  The  English  in  Ireland, 
Paris,  1887.  De  Mandat-Grancey,  Chez  Paddy,  Paris.  1887.  E.  Piché, 
Pour  rirlande  (answer  to  Chez  Paddy),  Paris,  Merich.  George  Sigerson, 
Modern  Ireland,  London,  1868.  John  Mitchel,  Jail  Journal,  New 
York,  1854.  M.  Arnold,  Irish  Essays,  London,  1882.  R.  Barry  O'Brien, 
Fifty  Years'  Concessions  to  Ireland,  London,  1883.  By  the  same,  Irish 
Wrongs  and  English  Remedies,  London,  1887.  William  O'Brien,  Irish 
Ideas,  London,  1893.  M.  Davitt,  Leaves  from  a  Prison  Diary,  London, 
1885.  The  Case  of  the  Irish  Landlords,  by  one  of  them,  Dublin,  1899. 
T.  W.  Russell,  Ireland  and  the  Empire,  London,  1901.  O'Connor 
Morris,  Present  Irish  Questions,  London,  1901.  Ideals  in  Ireland,  edited 
by  Lady  Gregory,  London,  1901.  Stephen  Gwynn,  M.P.,  To-day  and.  To- 
morrow in  Ireland,  London  and  Dublin,  1903.  Sir  H.  Plunkett,  Ireland 
in  the  New  Century,  London,  1904.  M.  Davitt,  The  Fall  of  Feudalism 
in  Ireland,  London,  New  York,  1904.  Recollée  dons,  Lives  aud 
Correspondence  of  O'Connell,  of  Dr.  M'Hale  (Archbishop  of  Tuam),  of 
Dr.  Doyle  (Archbishop  of  Kildare  and  Leighlin),  of  T.  Drummond,  of 


90  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

Froude,  who  wrote  their  history  under  this  title,  called 
them.  Below  are  the  people,  the  conquered,  the  helots, 
the  confused  and  mingled  mass  of  the  former  occupants 
of  the  soil,  be  they  of  Gaelic  or  Danish,  of  Norman  or 
Anglo-Norman,  or  even  of  English  blood.  For  division 
does  not  really  arise  from  race  differences — races  are 
merged  and  mixed — nor  even  from  religious  differences — 
Protestants  may  be  found  in  the  popular  party,  and 
Catholics  in  the  English  party.  The  line  of  demarcation 
is  chiefly  social  and  political.  Interests,  prejudices, 
national  aspirations,  separate  the  two  Irelands  far  more 
than  do  race  or  religion.  Thus  it  would  not  seem  that 
the  breach  which  history  has  created  is  definitive  and  im- 
passable. The  two  sections  are  without  doubt  mutually 
hostile  ;  shall  we  say  that  they  are  irreducible  and  re- 
fractory, one  to  the  other,  by  their  very  definition  ?  Are 
they,  as  has  been  said,  like  oil  and  water,  or  like  mercury 
and  lead  ?  England,  without  doubt,  has  done  every- 
thing, and  still  does  everything,  to  separate  the  two 
nations.  She  excites  the  prejudices  of  the  one  and  the 
appetites  of  the  other,  knowing  well  that  her  strength  lies 
in  their  division,  and  that  her  power  would  be  in  danger 
were  Ireland  one  and  united.  But  in  former  days  did 
not  Ireland  always  conquer  her  conquerors  one  after  the 
other  ?  How  then  can  she,  after  two  centuries  of  pre- 
scription have  run  in  their  favour,  refuse  the  name  of 

Davis,  of  John  Mitchel,  of  C.  G.  Duffy,  of  J.  B.  Dillon,  of  Parnell, 
etc.     William  O'Brien,  M;P.,  Recollections,  London,  1905. 

Various  Periodicals  and  Publications. — Hansard.  New  Ireland 
Review,  Dublin.  Journal  of  the  National  Literary  Society,  Dublin. 
Publications  of  the  Irish  Press  Agency,  of  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic 
Union,  of  the  Irish  Unionist  Alliance,  of  the  United  Irish  League  of 
Great  Britain. 

Novels. — The  Novels  of  Miss  Edgeworth,  of  C.  Lever,  of  S.  Lover, 
of  Carleton,  Gerald  Gtiffin,  of  Ch.  Kickham.  William  O'Brien, 
When  we  were  Boys.  Mrs.  O'Brien,  Silhouettes  Irlandaises,  The 
Novels  of  Canon  Sheehan,  especially  My  New  Citrate.  The  Novels 
of  Jane  Barlow,  espially  Irish  Idylls  and  A  Creel  of  Irish  Stories  ; 
of  Miss  Lawless,  especially  Hurrish  ;  of  Mrs.  Tynan- Hickson,  notably 
A  Cluster  of  Nuts  ;  of  Miss  Julia  Crottie,  notably  Neighbours.  Those 
of  Seumas  M'Manus,  notably  In  Old  Donegal  ;  and  of  Shan  Bullock, 
especially  The  Barrys,  and  Dan  the  Dollar.  O'Gara,  The  Green 
Republic,  London,  1903.  George  Moore,  The  Untilled  Field,  1903. 
George  Birmingham,  The  Seething  Pot,  London,  1905. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :   THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    91 

Irishmen  to  those  landlords  whose  titles  to  their  property 
she  no  longer  disputes  ?  How  can  she  disown  those  men 
who  since  the  time  of  Cromwell  and  of  William  III.  have 
breathed  her  air  beneath  her  skies,  and  who,  whatever 
may  have  been  their  faults  towards  the  country  of  their 
adoption,  gave  to  her  in  her  hours  of  tragedy  a  Wolfe 
Tone  and  a  Robert  Emmet,  a  Smith  O'Brien  and  a  John 
Mitchel  ? 

The  history  of  Ireland  in  the  nineteenth  century  is  that 
of  a  great  and  slow  revolution,  at  once  political  and  social, 
by  which  the  English  Garrison,  the  sovereign  minority, 
tends  to  lose  its  privileges  and  to  return  to  the  ranks, 
while  the  majority,  the  subject  people,  gradually  free 
themselves  and  resume  their  natural  rights.  The  pro- 
gressive uprising  of  the  Irish  people,  the  simultaneous 
downfall  of  the  governing  classes,  is  one  of  the  great  social 
facts  of  contemporary  Ireland.  Equilibrium  is  not  yet 
attained,  but  the  arms  of  the  balance  tend  to  come  to  rest. 

The  British  Colony  or  Garrison  consists  of  two  parts. 
First,  there  is  the  English  oligarchy,  the  Ascendancy, 
so  called,  the  landlords.  These  trace  their  descent  from 
the  English  conquerors  planted  in  the  country  by  Eng- 
land after  wholesale  confiscations.  They  have  their 
creatures,  agents  and  middlemen,  who  live  upon  them. 
To  this  group  also  belongs  a  section  of  the  bourgeoisie 
of  the  towns — officials,  lawyers,  professors,  business  men, 
or  manufacturers — who  have  been  imported  by  England, 
or  who  have  become  her  supporters.  Secondly,  there  are 
the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster,  the  descendants  or  successors 
of  the  Scotch  colonists  in  the  north-east  corner  of  the 
island.  They  are  the  Scots  of  Ireland,  as  distinguished 
from  their  allies,  the  Ascendancy,  who  are  the  English 
of  Ireland.  Together  the  two  comprise  the  total  forces  of 
the  Garrison,  the  Unionist  and  "  loyal  "  minority  of  the 
day.  They  comprise  a  million  and  a  quarter  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Ireland,  that  is  to  say,  a  little  over  a 
quarter  of  Ireland's  total  population  of  four  and  a  half 
millions. 


92  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 


I. — The  Oligarchy. 

Throughout  the  eighteenth  century  and  for  a  part  of 
the  nineteenth  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Protestant  Oligarchy 
remained  masters  of  Celtic  and  Catholic  Ireland.  Govern- 
ment, offices,  riches,  were  all  in  their  hands.  Their  Church 
was  the  State  Church,  and  was  wealthy  with  the  plunder 
of  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  Catholics  were  ignored  by 
the  law  except  for  the  purposes  of  "  repression  and 
punishment."2  The  oligarchy  might  have  developed  and 
civilised  the  country,  but  their  only  thought  was  to  ex- 
ploit and  oppress  it.  Their  instruments  of  oppression 
were  the  Penal  Laws,  which  made  pariahs  of  the  "  Papists," 
and  condemned  them  to  ignorance,  corruption  and  misery. 
Landlordism  was  their  method  of  exploitation.  The  whole 
peasantry  was  held  in  the  bonds  of  this  new  type  of 
feudalism  by  something  stronger  than  custom  or  law,  the 
fact,  namely,  that  the  land  was,  in  the  absence  of  all  other 
industries,  their  sole  means  of  livelihood.  Not  only  were 
they  forced  to  pay  exorbitant  rents,  but  the  landlord 
made  demands  upon  them  that  implied  slavery,  and  in 
return  they  received  no  service  and  no  assurance  of  pro- 
tection. It  is  true  that  this  system  was  to  degrade  and 
demoralise  the  ruling  class  itself.  Abuses  were  engendered 
in  the  church  as  in  the  Government,  in  private  as  in 
public  life  ;  and  the  squireen  was  the  scandal  and  the 
terror  of  his  neighbourhood.  But  times  changed.  While 
Parliament  was  still  an  aristocratic  assembly  the  Irish 
oligarchy  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Irish  Catholic 
masses,  who,  although  they  had  become  electors  in  1829, 
exercised  no  power  in  the  Commons.  But  the  change 
came  in  1865,  and  more  markedly  in  1884,  when  the 
franchise  was  largely  extended  to  the  democracy.  From 
the  day  that  saw  every  workman's  and  peasant's  house, 
every  "  hearth,"  invested  with  the  vote,  the  fate  of  the 
Garrison  was  decided.     Irish  feudalism  received  its  death- 

2  Lecky's  History  of  England  in  the  i&th  Century,  I.  284. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :   THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    93 

warrant.  In  1869  the  Irish  Episcopal  Church  was  dis- 
established. In  1870  and  in  1881  semi-revolutionary  Land 
Acts  put  a  curb  upon  landlordism  and  lowered  the  status 
of  the  landlord  to  its  fit  level  ;  then  followed  a  period  in 
which  voluntary  sale  and  purchase  of  land  was  encouraged 
by  legislation.  In  1898  the  Ascendancy  lost  control  of 
local  government,  which  became  elective,  and  therefore 
democratic. 

Thus  had  the  English  Garrison  during  the  course  of  the 
nineteenth  century  seen  their  privileges  gradually  vanish 
away.  It  is  true  that  what  they  have  lost  by  legislation 
on  the  one  hand  they  have  often  been  able  to  retake  on  the 
other.  Up  to  a  certain  point  they  have  been  able  to 
maintain  their  yoke  as  much  by  the  ascendancy  which 
they  had  gained  over  the  people,  as  by  the  spirit  of  servi- 
tude which  they  had  impressed  on  the  national  mind. 
The  greater  part  of  the  landed  property  is  still  in  their 
hands,  and  they  dominate  the  business  world  and  the 
liberal  professions.  They  are  still  the  rich  class,  although 
their  wealth  has  been  largely  dissipated  by  the  follies  of 
the  past.  Their  parliamentary  influence  is  very  limited, 
for  outside  Ulster  they  hold  in  the  House  of  Commons 
only  the  two  seats  of  Trinity  College. 3  But  the  Irish 
representation  in  the  House  of  Lords  is  completely 
Unionist. 4  The  Garrison  no  longer  make  the  laws,  but 
they  apply  them,  for  it  is  they  who  control  the  greater 
part  of  the  public  functions  in  the  State.  They  dominate 
the  judicial  bench,  and  are  all  but  absolute  among  the 
members  of  the  Bar  ;  and  they  have  Trinity  College  for 
the  education  of  their  sons.  They  constitute  "society," 
the  "  respectable  classes  "  ;  are  the  exclusive  entourage 
of   the   Lord   Lieutenant,    and   exercise   a   preponderant 

3  Since  this  has  been  written  the  Unionists  have  won  back  a  seat  in 
South  Dublin  ;    on  the  other  hand,  they  have  lost  one  in  Belfast. 

4  The  Irish  peerage  numbers  174  members.  The  Irish  peers  select 
28  from  among  themselves  for  life  seats  in  the  House  of  Lords.  At 
the  same  time  a  certain  number  of  Irish  peers  have  seats  in  the  Upper 
House  as  members  of  the  peerage  of  the  United  Kingdom.  {Cf.  Comte, 
de  Franqueville,  Le  Gouvernement  et  le  Parlement  Britanniques,  II., 
154-157).     Of  the  174  Irish  peers  only  14  are  Catholics. 


94  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

influence  on  the  Government  in  Dublin  Castle,  which  is 
still  penetrated  with  their  spirit  and  their  prejudices. 

In  the  countrv  districts  the  social  power  of  the  land- 
lords is  still  very  great.  This  is  apparent  when  one  con- 
siders that  even  a  small  landlord  has  about  a  hundred 
tenants  on  his  property,  while  the  large  holders  have 
several  thousand.  Moreover,  even  in  cases  where  the 
tenants  have  purchased  the  land  the  landlords  with  their 
demesnes  reserved  to  them,  and  lands  which  they  per- 
sonally- manage,  will  still  remain  the  greatest  proprietors 
in  the  country.  In  their  districts  they  are  the  centre  of 
established  authority*.  They  are  the  Justices  of  the 
Peace.  The  police  are  at  their  disposition.  The  Rector, 
the  Inspector  of  Police,  the  Resident  Magistrate  (when 
there  is  one)  are  their  familiars,  if  not  their  creatures. 
Through  their  agents  and  stewards,  their  bailiffs,  receivers, 
and  process-servers,  they  keep  the  peasant  under  a  yoke  of 
intimidation,  espionage,  and  corruption.  Although  for  a  cen- 
turv  and  more  the  Catholics  have  had  the  right  of  acquiring 
land,  even  to-dav  nine  out  of  ten  landlords  will  be  found 
to  be  Protestant.  Here  and  there,  indeed,  we  nnd  a  few 
old  Catholic  families  of  Anglo-Norman  origin,  such  as  the 
Fingalls,  and  even  a  few  descendants  of  the  ancient  Celtic 
chiefs,  such  as  the  0"Conors  of  Connacht,  who  have  been 
able  to  preserve  their  lands  throughout  the  persecutions, 
thanks  sometimes  to  the  fair  conscience  of  Protestant 
relations  and  friends.  Yet  though  they  have  often  adopted 
the  most  extreme  prejudices  of  the  class  to  which  they 
have  attached  themselves,  there  is  no  Catholic  on  the 
list  of  the  twenty-eight  peers  who  represent  Ireland  in 
the  House  of  Lords.  Catholicism  is  a  badge  of  inferiority, 
and  to  the  landlords,  as  to  the  bourgeoisie,  the  Catholic 
always  seems  somewhat  of  an  intruder  in  the  Ascendancy 
rank. 

Clearly,  then,  the  Protestant  Ascendancy  is  not  yet 
dead  in  Ireland.  Custom,  acquired  rights,  Government 
support,  conspire  to  preserve  it  :  but  none  the  less  the 
davs  of  the  privileged  class  are  numbered.     The  worm- 


THE  TWO  IRELAND5  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY     95 

eaten  edifice  has  more  than  hali  crumbled  to  pieces  already. 
You  may  see  as  you  go  through  the  country  manv  a 
mansion  shut  up  or  falling  into  ruins  that  was  but  a  little 
while  ago  a  bustling  centre  of  life  and  luxury*.  They  stand 
there  as  the  last  witnesses  of  the  fêtes  and  follies  of  the 
past.  Within,  perhaps,  the  present  landlord  drags  out  a 
miserable  and  desolate  existence,  like  some  old  half-pay 
officer.  He  has  no  relations  with  the  people,  and  no  hopes 
of  improvement,  but  he  continues  bound  by  the  chain 
forged  by  his  ancestors  or  by  himself  in  the  days  of  splen- 
dour, the  chain  of  poverty. 5  Can  one  refuse  pity  to  these 
"  disinherited  ''  magnates  who  are  paying  for  mistakes 
which  may  not  have  been  their  own  ?  No  one  in  Ireland 
any  longer  defends  the  "  Garrison  ;:  as  an  institution,  and 
when  they  are  gone  no  one  will  regret  them.  Even  in 
England,  except  in  the  L'pper  House  and  among  the 
Tories,  there  is  no  pity  or  sympathy  for  this  class,  which, 
nevertheless,  has  given  the  Empire  some  of  its  greatest 
sons,  from  a  Napier  and  a  Wellesley  to  a  DuSerin  and  a 
Lord  Roberts.  Their  part  is  played,  there  is  nothing  left 
for  them  to  do.  Have  they  not  failed  in  the  task  which 
was  confided  to  them,  and  shown  themselves  powerless 
either  to  Anglicise  or  to  Protestantise  Ireland  ?  The 
young  Radical  democracy  laughs  at  this  fallen  Garrison, 
which  is  already  three-parts  disarmed  :  while  the 
glorious  old  aristocracy  of  England  is  at  no  pains  to  hide 
a  certain  disdain  for  this  Anglo-Irish  nobility,  which, 
according  to  the  well-known  saying,  has  nothing  old 
except  its  prejudices,  and  nothing  new  except  its  parch- 
ments, and  whose  titles,  according  to  Lecky,  the  historian, 
are  for  the  most  part  connected  "  with  memories  not  of 
honour  but  of  shame."6 

It  seems  somewhat  unjust  that  modern  England,  and 

5  Mr.  Filson  Young  in  Irela  id  .::  tie  Cross  Read*  gives  i  :".ever  çicrire 
of  the  sadness  of  life  among  the  Irish  landlords. 

6  An  allusion  to  the  titles  sold    in  1799-1S00  in  exchange  fo- 
in favour  of  the  Act  of  Union,  and  more  generally  to  the  fact  that 
England  has  never  honoured  Irishmen  with  titles  unless  they  were 
supporters  of  England's  cause. 


96  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

notably  since  the  time  of  the  Great  Famine,  should  thus 
denounce  those  who  were  her  representatives  in  Ireland, 
and,  to  clear  herself,  should  throw  upon  them  all  responsi- 
bility for  all  the  mistakes  of  the  past.  It  is  easy  to  say 
that  all  the  evils  of  Ireland  have  for  sole  cause  a 
bad  aristocracy./  But  who  created  this  aristocracy  ? 
Human  nature  is  much  the  same  everywhere,  and  there 
is  no  class  or  nation  but  numbers  within  it  certain  un- 
worthv  or  perverse  individuals.  The  Irish  oligarchy 
must  not  be  charged  with  suffering  from  a  double  dose  of 
original  sin — a  condemnation  which  some  English  critics 
would  extend  to  the  whole  Irish  nation.  The  truth  is  that 
England,  who  wishes  now  to  make  scapegoats  of  the  Irish 
landlords,  is  responsible  for  the  oligarchy.  They  are  the 
product  of  circumstances  ;  for  it  was  England  that  gave 
over  a  Celtic  and  Catholic  country  to  these  English  Pro- 
testants, invested  them  with  unlimited  privileges,  but 
imposed  no  duties  upon  them,  and  placed  them  altogether 
above  the  law.  They  became  the  irresponsible  agents  of 
the  mother-country,  and  had  nothing  either  to  fear  or  to 
hope  from  the  people  who  had  been  given  to  them  to  be 
their  slaves.  There  has  never  been  an  occasion  on  which 
the  governors  and  governed  appeared  likely  to  unite  but 
England  intervened  and  threw  amidst  the  combatants  a 
monev  bribe,  or  raised  the  cry  of  religious  war.8  By 
coercion  the  British  Government  has  always  upheld  the 
worst  excesses  of  the  worst  landlords.  In  the  middle  of 
the  last  century  it  permitted  that  great  social  crime,  the 
Clearances,  to  take  place,  and  did  not  dare  to  legislate  for 
the  protection  of  the  peasants  until  1870.  In  a  word, 
those  circumstances  which  drew  out  all  the  best  qualities 
of  the  English  aristocracy,  and  produced  its  best  effects, 
onlv  resulted  in  Ireland  in  encouraging  vices  and  abuses 
on  the  part  of  the  English  Garrison. 

7  Gustave  de  Beaumont,  op.  cit.   i,   211. 

8  For  example  : — in  1795  England  embittered  the  religious  war:  in 
1898,  to  win  back  the  landlords  who  were  making  common  cause  with 
the  people  on  the  Financial  Relations  Question,  the  Government,  by  the 
Local  Government  Act,  gave  them  a  present  of  the  poor  rate. 


THE  TWO  IRELAXDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY     97 

These,  it  must  be  said,  were  unspeakably  odious.  No 
doubt  there  have  been,  and  still  are,  good  landlords  who  are 
paving  to-day  for  the  sins  of  their  fellows  ;  but  there  are  in 
truth  too  many  of  the  other  kind.  In  the  full  daylight 
of  the  nineteenth  century  we  still  meet  a  Lord  Plunket, 
an  Anglican  bishop,  who  evicts  his  Catholic  tenants  because 
they  refuse  to  have  their  children  educated  in  Protestant 
schools  ;  a  Lord  Leitrim,  who  violates  the  daughters 
of  his  tenants  ;  a  Lord  Clanricarde,  whose  exactions 
scandalise  even  the  Tunes,  and  are  described  by  the  noble 
lord's  own  counsel  as  "  devil's  work. "9  It  was  of  such  as 
these  that  Lord  Dufterin  once  said  :  "  There  are  men 
possessing  property  in  Ireland  in  whose  honour,  in  whose 
sense  of  justice,  in  whose  compassion,  I  for  one,  my  lords, 
have  no  confidence  whatever."10  Generally  speaking,  the 
landlords  appreciated  only  the  rights  of  property  which 
they  themselves  had  created  by  law,  and  not  the  rights  of 
humanity.  "  The  Irish  landlords,"  said  Froude,  the 
Celtophobe  historian,  '"in  their  dealings  with  the  tenants, 
have  been  little  better  than  skilful  thieves."  In  thirty- 
three  years,  from  1849  to  1882,  they  evicted  and  drove 
from  their  homes  363,000  peasant  families,11  and  this  at 
a  time  when,  according  to  Gladstone,  eviction  meant  a 
sentence  of  death.  They  have  never  tried  to  develop  the 
country,  or  to  fulfil  their  social  function  as  a  civilising 
agency.  The  Garrison  have  occupied  the  country  without 
governing  it,  or  rather,  they  have  governed  it  only  in  the 
interests  of  class  :  ascendancy  has  been  their  whole  politics. 
It  is  sad  to  think  of  how  much  they  might  have  done 
for  Ireland  had  they  wished.  Many  Irishmen — with  the 
Volunteers    of    1782,    with   the    United    Irishmen,    with 

9  See  Cardinal  Perraud,  op.  cit.  1-303  and  seq.  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
Parnell  Movement,  London,  1886.,  Ch.  VI.  and  Ch.  XV.  William 
O'Brien,  Irish  Ideas,  London,  1893.  p.  83. 

10  Lord  Dufferin  in  the  House  of  Lords  (February,  1S54).  during  the 
Second  Reading  of  Lord  Donoughmore's  Bill  in  favour  of  the  Irish 
peasantry. 

11  Mulhall,  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  London,  18S6.  p.  175.  (We  are 
not  counting  119,000  evicted  families  who  were  reinstated  sooner  or 
ater). 

H 


98  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

O'Connell,  Thomas  Davis  and  Young  Ireland,  and  later 
still,  with  Butt  himself — have  cherished  the  dream  of 
seeing  the  gentry  unite  with  the  people,  and  play  the  part 
of  a  national  aristocracy.12  Many  opportunities  have  been 
lost  never  to  be  found  again.  On  every  occasion  they 
turned  from  the  path  of  conciliation  and  of  progress  to 
safeguard  their  privileges  and  their  interests.  Rather 
than  make  a  moral  conquest  of  the  country  of  which  they 
might  have  become  the  leaders,  they  have  preferred  to 
remain  strangers  and  suspects,  the  mercenaries  of  England, 
and  the  parasites  of  Ireland.  A  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald, 
a  Smith  O'Brien,  because  they  embraced  the  cause  of  the 
people,  are  disowned  by  their  families.^  In  1800,  rather 
than  emancipate  the  Catholics  and  make  one  nation  of  the 
two  Irelands,  they  threw  themselves  into  the  arms  of 
England  and  sold  the  Irish  Parliament  for  gold  and  parch- 
ment. They  have  never  been  able  to  cure  themselves  of 
egotistic  blindness,  or  to  merge  their  own  interests  in  the 
public  weal.  Even  to-day  the  representatives  of  the 
dying  Garrison  have  no  idea  save  how  they  may  sell  as 
dearly  as  possible  what  still  remains  of  their  rights  and 
privileges.  Their  last  thought  is  of  a  bargain  to  be  made. 
It  is  a  sad  ending,  especially  when  compared  to  that  of 
the  old  Irish  aristocracy,  which  under  Cromwell  and 
William  III.  remained  faithful  to  its  country  and  to  its 
race,  and  even  to  the  Stuarts,  who  betrayed  it — which 
allowed  itself  to  be  despoiled  and  exterminated  rather 
than  disown  its  country  or  its  religion,  and  lost  all 
but  honour.1 4  The  modern  oligarchy  is  dying  without 
one  fine  phrase  or  noble  gesture  ;  amid  the  hatred  of 
some  and  the  contempt  of  others,  but  without  evoking  a 
single  regret  or  lament.     Our  old  noblesse  of  the  Ancien 

12  Mr.  William  O'Brien's  Irish  Ideas.  See  the  chapter  entitled  The 
Lost  Opportunities  of  the  Irish  Gentry. 

*3  Smith  O'Brien,  for  instance,  was  repudiated  by  his  own  brother, 
Sir  Lucius  O'Brien,  at  Westminster  in  1848.  The  family  of  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald  refused  to  accept  from  Moore  a  copy  of  his  Life 
of  Lord  Edward. 

J4  See  a  fine  parallel  of  Mr.  Standish  O' Grady's  in  Ideals  in  Ireland, 
p.  82-83. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :   THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    99 

Regime  knew  its  way  to  a  better  ending  on  the  night  of  the 
4th  of  August. 

If  the  "  Garrison  "  henceforth  ceases  to  exist  as  a 
sovereign  caste,  it  survives  as  a  political  party.  The 
oligarchy,  the  Ascendancy,  is  merged  in  Unionism,  and 
there  we  find  again  the  narrow  egoism  of  its  representa- 
tives. Politically  their  numerical  weakness  makes  them 
supine  and  inert,  and  they  have  no  capable  men  or  leaders. 
They  have  not  even  a  programme,  or  rather,  they  have 
only  a  negative  programme,  opposition  to  the  national 
aspirations  of  Ireland  ;  and  to  this  principle  they  have 
never  been  able  to  add  a  single  constructive  or  pro- 
gressive idea.  "  Now  and  again,"  one  of  them  has  de- 
clared, "  an  individual  tries  to  broaden  the  basis  of  Irish 
Unionism,  and  to  bring  himself  into  touch  with  the  life 
of  the  people  ;  but  the  nearer  he  gets  to  the  people  the 
farther  he  gets  from  the  Irish  Unionist  leaders."^  Their 
propaganda  is  reduced  to  this  :  they  excite  British  Celto- 
phobia  under  the  pretext  of  enlightening  opinion,  and 
denounce  Nationalism  and  the  Nationalists  with  great 
violence  in  the  English  Press.  When  they  are  not  attack- 
ing Home  Rule  they  have  no  living  01  active  organisation 
except  the  syndicate  of  landlords,  the  Landowners' 
Convention.16  A  little  ashamed  before  the  world  of  the 
name  of  Irishmen,  they  boast  of  being  "  British 
citizens,"  "  loyalists,"  and  the  only  "  loyalists  "  of  Ireland. 
This  "  loyalism  "  is,  however,  conditional  and  dependent 
upon  the  favours  of  the  Government.  It  is  a  pocket 
"  loyalism,"  a  surface  "  loyalism,"  which  consists  in 
fidelity,  not  to  the  British  Constitution,  but  to  what  they 
consider  is  due  to  themselves  from  the  British  Constitu- 
tion. Utilitarian  egoism  and  personal  interest  have 
obliterated  everything  else  in  their  minds,  just  as  in 
Ulster,  that  complementary  fraction  of  the  British 
"  colony,"  everything  is  dominated  by  sectarian  fanati- 
cism. 

IS  Sir  Horace  Plunkett's  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  64. 
rô  A  sort  of  Council  of  the  Landowners  in  Ireland  composed  of  the 
most  reactionary  elements  of  the  landlord  party. 


ioo  POLITICAL   AND   SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 


II. — Ulster. 

In  contrast  to  the  Anglican  and  aristocratic  Ascendancy, 
Presbyterian  Ulster  is  by  nature  radical  and  democratic. 
The  reason  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  its  history,  and  in  the 
individualistic  character  of  its  religion. 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  James  I.  that  Ulster  was  first 
"  planted  "  by  a  large  Scotch  contingent.  The  current  of 
immigration  continued  of  itself  during  the  seventeenth  and 
a  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Under  William  III.  and 
his  immediate  successors  80,000  Scotch  families  settled  in 
Ulster.1  It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that  the  lot 
of  the  first  Presbyterians  in  Ireland  was  by  any  means 
enviable.  The  Established  Church  persecuted  them  and 
forced  them  to  pay  tithes  ;  public  positions  and  offices 
were  closed  to  them  ;  their  peasantry  were  oppressed  by 
the  great  Anglican  landlords,  and  their  workmen  soon  saw 
their  industries  destroyed  by  prohibitory  laws.  In  short, 
discontent  soon  made  Ulster  a  prey  to  secret  societies  and 
agrarian  crime.  A  great  number  of  Presbyterians  fled  to 
the  American  colonies,  where  they  helped  to  stir  up 
insurrection.  Then  came  the  American  war  and  the 
French  Revolution.  Ulster  was  the  first  to  rise  in  the 
cause  of  liberty,  and  to  revolt  against  the  Irish  Parliament 
and  the  Castle,  against  "  rent  "  and  "  tithes."  Belfast, 
now  the  bulwark  of  Unionism,  was  then  ,the  home 
of  Republicanism.  Presbyterians  and  Catholics  united 
under  the  flag  of  "United  Ireland,"  whilst  Wolfe  Tone 
attempted  to  organise  rebellion. 

But  simultaneously  with  the  growth  of  this  democratic 
force  another  arose  which  was  to  change  the  face  of  things, 
the  force  of  anti-Catholic  passion.  It  was  born  origin- 
ally of  a  mere  conflict  of  interests.  As  the  Presbyterian 
peasantry  began  to  emigrate  from  Ulster  the  Catholics  of 
the  neighbouring  counties  came  to  take  their  place — 
introduced  in  many  cases  by  the  landlord,  who  wished  to 

1  Th.  Wyse,  History  of  the  Catholic  Association,  I.,  280,  387. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    101 

arouse  a  spirit  of  competition.  Hence  began  a  struggle 
for  the  land  between  the  Presbyterians  and  Catholics,  and 
this  soon  engendered  a  religious  war.  The  Peep  of  Day 
Boys  and  the  Wreckers  massacred  the  Catholics  ;  the 
Defenders  retaliated,  and  one  evening  in  September,  1795, 
the  Presbyterians,  after  their  victory  at  the  "  Diamond," 
near  Armagh,  founded  the  celebrated  "  Orange  "  Society, 
with  the  avowed  aim  of  driving  the  Papists  from  the 
province,  and  with  the  secret  support  of  Government, 
which  has  always  sought  to  divide  Irishmen.  "  They  call 
themselves  Orangemen  and  Protestant  Boys,"  said  the 
Protestant  Grattan,  "  they  are  a  banditti  of  murderers 
committing  massacres  in  the  name  of  God,  and  exercising 
despotic  powers  in  the  name  of  liberty."  So  the  Catholics 
were  exiled  by  force  from  Ulster,  but  one  Papist  house 
being  left  standing  in  the  County  of  Armagh.  Simul- 
taneously the  movement  for  a  United  Ireland  collapsed, 
and  the  revolutionary  movement,  provoked  by  Ulster  in 
1792  and  disowned  by  her  in  1798,  received  its  death  blow. 
From  these  origins  arose  the  two  characteristic  traits  of 
Presbyterian  Ulster  :  Radicalism,  which  inclines  her  towards 
Irish  nationalism  ;  fanaticism,  which  separates  her  from 
it.  These  two  traits  appear  again  and  again  in  Ulster 
history.  Every  time  that  radicalism  would  seem  likely  to 
unite  Presbyterians  and  Nationalists,  fanaticism  stands  in 
the  way  and  makes  enemies  of  those  who  the  day  before 
had  worked  in  alliance.2  The  Union  of  1800  definitely 
rallied  Ulster  to  the  support  of  the  English  regime  as  the 
Scotch  Union  had  rallied  Scotland  ;  and  for  a  hundred 
years  Unionism  has  found  its  strongest  support  in  Scotch 
Ireland.  Liberal  in  politics,  Ulster  went  over  to  Toryism 
when  in  1885  Gladstone  became  a  convert  to  Home  Rule, 
and  during  the  crisis  of  1880  to  1893  fought  passionately 

2  Notably  in  1852,  when  Gavan  Duffy  founded,  with  the  aid  of  the 
Presbyterians,  the  League  of  North  and  South  to  uphold  the  claims 
of  the  peasants.  A  small  Bill  brought  forward  by  Lord  John  Russell 
to  prevent  Catholic  bishops  from  assuming  the  title  of  their  dioceses, 
sufficed  to  re-light  in  Ulster  the  fires  of  religious  passion  and  to  put 
an  end  to  the  land  movement,  the  outcome  of  which  might  have  been, 
ten  years  earlier,  the  reforms  eventually  carried  by  Mr.  Gladstone. 


102        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

against  the  claim  of  Ireland  to  autonomy.  She  was 
encouraged  in  this  by  the  constant  incitements  not  only 
of  her  own  leaders,  but  of  the  great  English  political 
chiefs,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  Lord  Salisbury, 
and  Mr.  Chamberlain,  who  did  not  hesitate  to 
inflame  her  anti-Nationalism  and  anti-Catholicism  by 
advising  her  to  resist  Home  Rule,  even  by  force  if 
necessary.  It  is  by  a  strange  evolution  indeed  that 
Ulster,  which  was  rebel  a  hundred  years  ago,  has  now 
become  ultra-Unionist  and  ultra-Loyalist.  The  very 
men  who  are  now  ready  to  fight  for  the  Union  are  the 
descendants  of  the  insurgents  of  1798.  Sometimes  they 
are  proud  that  they  have  had  an  ancestor  who  was  hanged 
for  high  treason,  and  often  an  old  uniform  of  the  Volunteers 
may  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  their  wardrobes  among  the 
family  relics.3  The  fact  is  that  a  hundred  years  ago 
Ulster  revolted  not  so  much  against  England  as  against 
the  abuses  of  the  Castle,  the  Established  Church,  and  the 
Ascendancy.  Against  these  the  Union  gave  them  a  first 
guarantee.  Their  quarrel  was  with  the  Irish  Parliament, 
with  its  narrowness  and  corruption,  and  so  to-day  they 
protest  against  the  re-establishment,  in  any  form  what- 
soever, of  an  Irish  Parliament  in  Dublin. 4  Ulster,  more- 
over, has  in  one  sense  won  much  during  the  Unionist 
regime.  She  has  acquired,  in  striking  contrast  to  the  rest 
of  Ireland,  industrial  prosperity.  The  English  have  not 
failed  to  make  use  of  this  fact  as  an  illustration  and  a  proof 
that  there  was  no  reason  why  all  Ireland,  like  Ulster, 
should  not  have  prospered  under  the  British  yoke.  In- 
deed, Belfast,  as  Londonderry  in  a  lesser  degree,  may  be 
counted  amongst  the  most  thriving  industrial  centres  of 
Great  Britain  ;    with  its  red-bricked  and  smoke-blackened 

3  There  is  a  certain  high  official  of  the  Orange  Order  who  delights, 
it  is  said,  in  entertaining  his  guests  after  dinner  with  a  recitation  of 
Robert  Emmet's  Speech  from  the  Dock. 

4  It  is  said  that  Gladstone  could  not  understand  why  Ulster  did  not 
second  his  efforts  for  Home  Rule.  He  could  never  make  out  why  the 
revolutionary  Ulstermen  of  1795  had  so  altered  that,  instead  of  seeing 
in  Home  Rule  the  consummation  of  the  Liberal  policy,  they  saw  in  it  a 
reversal  of  that  policy. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    103 

buildings  after  the  American  pattern,  its  factories  and 
palaces,  this  workers'  city  resembles  Liverpool  or 
Glasgow  rather  than  an  Irish  town.  Whence,  then,  comes 
this  industrial  prosperity  ?  How  is  it  that,  even  in  the 
country  districts  of  Ulster,  one  is  struck  on  entering  it 
from  Connaught  or  Leinster,  with  the  good  condition  of 
the  houses,  the  clean  and  comfortable  look  of  the  lime- 
whitened  cottages,  the  fresh  look  of  the  country-side,  rich 
in  crops  and  trees  ?  Protestantism,  it  is  said,  has  made 
Ulster  successful.  Well,  we  may  admit  that  Protestantism, 
rightly  understood,  develops  energy  and  initiative  better 
than  Catholicism,  wrongly  understood.  We  may  recognise, 
too,  that  the  Scotch  character,  of  which  the  Ulstermen 
have  a  share,  is  richer  in  these  qualities  than  the 
Irish  character.  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  Ulster  peasant  has  always  had  the  benefit 
of  an  agrarian  charter,  of  tenant  right,  and  of  this  the 
rest  of  the  Irish  peasantry  were  deprived  until  1871  ; 
and  also  that  the  Unionist  province  has  for  a  hundred 
years  possessed  political  liberty  under  the  Government 
of  its  choice.  This  is,  after  all,  the  first  of  the  necessary 
conditions  of  progress.  But  the  renown  of  Ulster's  pros- 
perity must  not  be  exaggerated.  Ulster  has  lost  through 
emigration  in  sixty  years  34  per  cent,  of  her  population, 
and  the  decrease  has  been  scarcely  less  noticeable  among 
the  Protestant  than  among  the  Catholic  section  of  the 
population.  5 

It  would  be  a  grave  error  to  consider  Ulster  as  a  Pro- 
testant "bloc."  Of  the  total  population  of  the  province, 
1,582,826,6  the  Catholics  are  44  per  cent.,  or  699,202, 
the  Anglicans  or  Episcopalians  22  per  cent.,  or  360,373, 
the  Presbyterians  26  per  cent.,  or  425,526,  the  Methodists 
3  per  cent.,  or  47,372.  Thus  the  Protestants  together  make 
51  per  cent,  of  the  population,  while  the  Catholics  reach 
the  proportion  of  44  per  cent.     The  equilibrium  is  not 

5  From  1841  to  1901  Ireland  as  a  whole  has  lost  45  per  cent,  of  her 
population. 

6  Census  of  1901.     (General  Report,  p.  52). 


104         POLITICAL   AND   SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

perfect,  but  it  is  nearly  so.  Geographically,  according  to 
the  arrangement  of  the  counties,  there  are  great  differences 
in  the  distribution  of  the  religions.  Out  of  nine  counties, 
three  are  almost  exclusively  Catholic  (Donegal,  Cavan  and 
Monaghan),  in  three  others  (Tyrone,  Armagh  and 
Fermanagh)  Catholics  and  Protestants  are  almost  equal  in 
number  ;  and  in  the  three  eastern  counties  of  Down, 
Antrim  and  Derry,  and  in  the  cities  of  Londonderry  and 
Belfast,  the  Protestants  are  in  the  great  majority.  If  we 
draw  an  imaginary  line  from  Londonderry  to  Warren- 
point,  that  is  to  say,  from  Lough  Foyle  to  Carlingford 
Lough,  east  of  this  line  we  shall  find  the  Ulster  which  is 
mostly  Protestant,  west  that  which  is  mostly  Catholic. 

The  social  effects  of  this  quasi-equivalence  of  Catholic 
and  Protestant  may  be  easily  divined.  First  of  all  it 
separates  the  two  classes  by  a  barrier  that  is  morally 
insuperable.  Each  class  lives  to  itself  ;  there  are  no 
mixed  marriages  ;  where  there  are  no  hard  words  there  are 
hard  looks,  and  where  there  are  no  stones  there  are  spites. 
The  religious  aspect  always,  at  least  apparently,  dominates 
the  political  aspect  of  social  questions,  although  at  bottom 
I  believe  it  would  be  found  that  a  hostility  of  interest 
underlies  the  religious  hostility.  To  the  same  causes  we 
must  ascribe  that  special  passion  or  madness  called 
"  Ulsteria,"  which  keeps  the  Protestants  of  Ulster  in  its 
hold,  and  embitters  feeling  in  quite  another  way  than 
the  "  hysteria  "  with  which  the  Nationalists  are  reproached 
— we  mean,  of  comse,  anti-Catholic  fanaticism. 

For  over  a  century,  with  alternatives  of  storm  and 
calm,  it  has  been  ravaging  Ulster,  laughable  in  some  of 
its  effects  and  terribly  grotesque  and  odious  in  others. 
It  is  a  permanent  factor  of  civil  war  ;  it  is  the  first  obstacle 
in  the  way  of  material  unity  ;  it  is  at  the  same  time  an 
inexhaustible  source  of  merriment  and  of  mockery.  It  is 
the  national  sport  of  the  Ulsterman,  who,  being  a  Celt 
of  Scotch  origin,  is  violent  and  passionate  by  nature, 
has  a  fault-finding  spirit  and  loves  fighting.  That  he 
should  not  love  the  Papist  is  intelligible  enough,  since  the 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    105 

Papist  has  in  the  nineteenth  century  not  only  regained 
lands  in  Ulster,  as  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth,  but  has 
acquired  political  rights,  has  established  his  place  on 
Irish  soil,  and  is  menacing  the  hegemony  of  the  "  Garrison." 
Ulster  even,  during  the  last  half  of  the  last  century, 
was  the  object  of  a  slow  but  sure  reconquest  by  southern 
Ireland.  Thirty  years  ago  the  Nationalists  did  not  possess 
a  single  parliamentary  seat  in  the  province,  now  they  have 
15  or  16  out  of  34.  But  why  should  a  jealousy  that  is, 
above  all,  political  and  social  assume  this  religious  form  ? 
Why  should  aversion  for  Catholics  extend  to  aversion  for 
Catholicism  ?  It  must  be  remembered  that  we  are  dealing 
here  with  Presbyterians  (or  Low  Church  Anglicans)  who 
have  inherited  from  their  Scotch  ancestors  a  fierce  and 
individualistic  type  of  religion  which  is  impatient  of  any 
yoke  or  barrier  interposed  between  them  and  the  Bible.  Such 
people  have  no  understanding  whatever  of  a  Catholicism 
in  which  they  see  only  Torquemeda  and  the  butchers,7 
the  Madonna  and  the  Christ.  They  consider  themselves  as 
the  sole  defenders,  in  a  "  Papist  "  isle,  of  liberty  of  conscience 
and  the  Christian  traditions  against  the  obscurantism 
and  despotism  of  the  priest.  But  are  not  the  Protestants 
of  Ulster  in  a  majority  ?  Precisely.  The  Protestants  of 
the  south,  isolated  in  the  midst  of  the  Catholics,  are  power- 
less ;  and  only  in  Ulster  can  they  speak  and  act  in  the 
defence  of  their  so-called  "  persecuted  brethren  "  who  lie 
under  the  tyranny  of  Catholic  intolerance  in  Munster  and 
Connaught.8  In  short,  you  cannot  reason  with  the  Ulster- 
man.  Popery  is  the  enemy.  Every  child  is  brought  up 
with  the  idea  that  its  duty  in  life  will  be  to  purge  Ireland 
of  the  Papists.  To  Hell  with  the  Pope  !  This  is  the  popular 
curse.  An  Englishman  in  Portadown  hearing  a  street  boy 
shout  the  well-known  refrain,  asked  him  did  he  not  know 
that  the  Pope  was  after  all  a  very  respectable  old  gentle- 
man who    ..."  Maybe,"  said  the  boy,  "  but  he  has  a 

7  See  the  curious  testimony  in  Mr.  Filson  Young's  Ireland  at  the 
Cross  Roads,  London,  1903,  p.  27  et  seq. 

s  In  reality  there  is  very  little  religious  intolerance  amongst  the 
Catholics  in  Ireland.     See  later. 


ic6        POLITICAL   AND   SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

bad  name  in  Portadown."  There  is  no  worse  insult  than 
the  epithet  of  Papist,  and  it  is  applied  right  and  left. 
Wellesley,  Lord  Lieutenant  in  1822,  having  incurred  the  dis- 
favour of  Ulster,  was  greeted  in  Belfast  with  cries  of 
"  Down  with  the  Papist."  More  recently  still,  despite  his 
famous  pamphlet  on  Vaticanism,  Gladstone  did  not  escape 
a  similar  reproach,  nor  did  Mr.  John  Morley.9 

The  home  of  this  fanaticism  is  the  Orange  Society,  of 
whose  foundation  we  have  spoken  above.  It  was  founded 
under  the  auspices  of  the  then  Duke  of  York,  and  has 
been  twice  dissolved — notably  after  a  certain  enquiry 
which,  in  1835,  disclosed  its  schemes  upon  the  Army,  as 
well  as  its  destructive  action  upon  all  social  order.  It 
was  reconstituted  on  a  new  basis  in  1845,  and  is  now  a 
redoubtable  power  in  Ulster,  although  the  number  of  its 
effective  members  is  much  smaller  than  it  was.10  It  is 
composed  of  artisans  and  employees,  errand-boys  and 
hooligans,  with  here  and  there  a  farmer  or  a  clergyman 
of  advanced  views  ;  and  its  democratic  character  causes 
it  to  be  regarded  with  a  certain  disdain  by  the  rich  bour- 
geoisie. Nevertheless,  it  is  courted  by  the  latter  and  by 
some  of  the  aristocracy  also,  who  are  in  search  of  political 
honours.  Its  leaders  are  "  gentlemen  "  or  "  noblemen." 
It  has  taken  its  name  from  its  chosen  hero,  the  man  who 
in  its  eyes  personifies  Protestantism,  William  III.  (by  the 
irony  of  history  he  was  one  of  the  most  tolerant  of  men), 
the  conqueror  of  the  Boyne,  of  "  glorious,  pious  and 
immortal  memory."  It  has  "  lodges  "  throughout  Ulster, 
in  Dublin,  England,  America  and  the  Colonies,  and  persons 
are  admitted  as  members  only  after  secret  initiation,  with 
many  mystifications  and  ceremonies.  At  its  head  there 
is  a  "  Giand  Black  Chapter,"  an  "  Imperial  Grand  Master," 
a  "  Grand  Council  "  of  the  Order.  The  official  object  is  the 
defence  and  protection  of  Protestantism  throughout  the 
world.       "  Orangeism,"    said    the   "  Grand    Master  "   of 

9  It  is  said  that  when  Edward  VII.  went  to  Londonderry  a  few  years 
ago  he  was  received  with  cries  of  "  Popish  Ned." 

10  The  number  is  estimated  at  10,000  as  compared  with  200,000  in 
1835. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY     107 

the  "  Grand  Black  Chapter,"  a  short  while  ago,  "is  Pro- 
testantism in  action  and  in  organisation."  It  strives,  in 
fact,  to  protect  and  advance  the  privileges  and  interests 
of  Protestantism,  and  to  put  back  Catholics  and  Catholi- 
cism under  a  yoke  from  which  the  laws  should  never 
have  let  them  escape.  Orangeism  is  loyal  to  the  King, 
but  on  condition  that  the  King  supports  the  Protestant 
Ascendancy  in  Ireland — this  was  the  first  formula  in  the 
Orange  Oath,  but  it  is  now  modified — and  that  the 
Government  is  loyal  to  the  Orangemen.    All  that  it  asks  is  : 

The  crown  of  the  causeway  in  road  or  in  street, 
And  the  Papishes  under  my  feet.11 

Every  Sunday  in  Belfast,  Orangeism  holds  its  demon- 
strations in  the  sacred  forum  which  stretches  out  at  the 
base  of  the  Custom  House  steps.  Orator  follows  orator, 
meeting  succeeds  meeting  ;  throughout  the  long  afternoon 
the  Pope  is  denounced  and  Popery  condemned,  Home 
Rule  torn  to  pieces,  and  the  green  flag  to  tatters,  and  the 
day  ends  in  scurries  between  "  brethren  "  and  quarrels 
with  the  police.  But  in  summer  the  great  demonstrations 
of  Orangeism  and  its  imposing  functions  may  best  be  seen, 
above  all  on  the  anniversaries  of  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne, 
or  on  that  of  the  raising  of  the  Siege  of  Derry.  On  the  12th 
of  July,  the  national  festival  of  Ulster,  all  the  shops  are  shut, 
and  everyone  wears  an  Orange  lily  in  his  buttonhole.  A 
monster  procession  marches  through  Belfast,  as  through 
every  town  and  village  of  Orange  Ulster,  ending  up  at  a 
vast  meeting  at  which  the  glories  of  William  of  Orange  and 
the  reverses  of  James  II.  are  celebrated  in  song.  No  one, 
apparently,  asks  why  Irishmen  should  grow  so  passionate 
over  the  memory  of  a  battle  that  was  fought  more  than 
two  centuries  ago  between  a  Scotch  King  and  a  Dutch 
prince.12  Each  "  lodge  "  sends  its  delegation  to  the  pro- 
cession with  banners  and  drums.  On  the  flags  there  are 
various   devices:     "Diamond  Heroes,"    "True    Blues," 

11  Sir  Samuel  Ferguson,  The  Loyal  Orangeman. 

12  An   epigram  of  Father  Finlay,  the  eminent  Jesuit. 


io8        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

"No  Pope."  The  participants  give  themselves  over  to 
character  dances,  shouting  out  their  favourite  songs  :  The 
Boyne  Water,  and  Croppies  Lie  Down.  The  chief  part  is 
played  by  the  drummers,  the  giants  of  each  "  lodge,"  who 
with  bared  arms  beat  their  drums  with  holy  fury,  their 
fists  running  with  blood,  until  the  first  drum  breaks  and 
many  more  after  it,  and  in  the  evening  they  fall  half 
dead  in  an  excess  of  frenzy.1 3 

Unfortunately  these  demagogic  manifestations,  with 
their  mixed  inspiration  of  Freemasonry  and  the  Salvation 
Army,  are  not  sufficient  to  satisfy  Orange  fanaticism. 
It  often  passes  over  into  action,  and  the  time  of  the  great 
anniversaries  of  July  and  August,  in  Shankhill  Road, 
Belfast,  gives  rise  to  nothing  less  than  pitched  battles 
between  Protestant  and  Catholic.  Catholic  processions 
are  attacked,  and  the  windows  of  churches  and  schools  are 
smashed.  Excursion  trains  are  employed  for  the  purpose 
of  making  raids  upon  those  Catholic  or  partly  Catholic 
towns  which  form  the  edge  of  Ulster,  Rostrevor,  Warren- 
point,  and  Newry.  The  Government  shuts  its  eyes  when 
it  can,  and  proceeds  weakly  when  action  is  absolutely 
necessary. 

There  have  not  been  many  statesmen  who,  like  Morley 
and  Drummond,  have  tried  to  curb  effectively  this  regime 
of  violence,  in  which  an  Ulsterman  shows  all  the  brutality 
of  a  Scotchman  with  all  the  excitability  of  a  Celt,  and 
restrains  himself  the  less  because  he  knows  that,  if  he  is 
prosecuted,  he  will  be  tried  before  Orange  justices  or  an 
Orange  jury. 

Of  the  two  forces  which  are  thus  struggling  for  mastery 
in  Ulster,  sectarian  fanaticism  and  Orange  democracy, 
fanaticism  has  up  to  the  present  always  won  the  day. 
Will  it  be  always  so  ?    Ulster  Radicalism,  it  is  to  be  noted, 

x3  After  a  day's  work  it  is  said  that  each  man  must  be  shut  up  in  a 
box,  otherwise  he  would  go  on  drumming  in  his  sleep  !  One  drummer 
is  said  to  have  carried  this  to  such  an  extent  that  he  killed  his  wife 
in  his  sleep  and  broke  the  furniture.  See  a  humorous  article  in  the 
United  Irishman  (April,  1903).  The  Battle  of  Scarva  is  represented 
every  year  on  the  site  of  the  battle  in  County  Armagh.  So  likewise 
is  the  Battle  of  the  Boyne. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY  109 

must  not  be  confounded  with  Irish  Nationalism.  It  has 
no  grudge  against  the  Act  of  Union,  and  is  animated,  not 
by  the  national,  but  by  the  democratic  spirit.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  able  in  1782  and  1852  to  bring  about  a  temporary 
rapprochment  between  Ulster  and  the  rest  of  Ireland. 
Will  this  alliance  of  Orange  and  Green  be  reproduced  in  any 
lasting  manner  ?  Will  the  glorious  times  of  United  Ireland 
reappear,  and  the  stormy  sky  be  lit  up  as  before  by  a  League 
of  North  and  South  ?  The  Nationalists  are  full  of  con- 
fidence that  this  will  be  so,  and  indeed,  certain  signs,  of 
which  we  shall  have  to  speak  later,  would  seem  to  justify 
the  hope.H  But  we  must  not  be  too  optimistic.  The 
union  of  all  Ireland  is  possible  and  probable,  but  it  does 
not  lie  in  the  near  future.  Fanaticism  will  one  day  be 
killed  by  radicalism  in  Ulster,  but  the  struggle  is  not  yet 
near  its  end.  If  it  be  true  that  this  sectarianism  represents 
essentially  an  egoistic  protest  against  the  fall  of  Pro- 
testantism from  its  supremacy,  and  against  the  political 
and  social  ascent  of  the  Catholic  majority,  it  would  be 
vain  to  hope  that  it  can  disappear  before  that  fall  is  com- 
plete and  irrevocable,  and  that  ascent  made  certain  and 
sanctioned  by  what  should  be  its  seal,  Irish  autonomy. 
Until  then  Ulster  will  remain  fanatical  and  Tory,  despite 
her  radicalism,  because  she  will  count  on  the  Tories  to 
protect  her  interests.  Tolerance  will  come  to  its  own  when 
Ulster,  renouncing  Protestant  supremacy  in  Ireland,  and 
conscious  besides  of  new  aspirations,  begins  to  consider 
herself  no  longer  as  an  integral  fraction  of  the  British 
Garrison,  but  as  a  free  fraction  of  a  free  Ireland. 


III. — The  Crisis  of  Unionism 

The  peculiarly  painful  feature  of  the  present  situation, 
as  it  concerns  the  "  Colony  "  in  its  two  sections,  Presby- 
terian Ulster  and  the  English  Ascendancy,  is  the  long 

*4  See  later.  During  the  last  two  or  three  years  the  Orangemen  are 
somewhat  less  rabid. 


no         POLITICAL   AND   SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

duration  of  that  unfortunate  but  necessary  operation  by 
which  the  colony  is  little  by  little  being  deprived  of  its 
supremacy  and  monopoly  in  political  and  social  life,  and 
sees  the  majority  retake  its  place  and  rank  in  the  nation. 
If  the  revolution  had  been  carried  out  in  the  French 
manner  the  operation  would  at  least  have  been  more 
rapidly  completed.  As  it  is,  it  has  been  accomplished 
peacefully,  but  slowly  and  painfully.  Begun  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  had  in  truth  made  little  pro- 
gress before  1869,  and  since  that  time  the  country  has 
resounded  incessantly  with  the  complaints  of  the  Garrison. 
Rather  than  collaborate  in  the  necessary  measures,  and 
accept  with  good  grace  the  law  of  democratic  evolution, 
the  colony  has  done  nothing  better  than  bemoan  its  fate, 
brandish  its  acquired  rights,  and  impede  all  reform.  The 
disestablishment  of  the  Anglican  Church  was  confiscation 
and  pure  theft.  Theft  and  confiscation,  too,  were  the 
land  laws  of  Mr.  Gladstone  ;  moreover,  they  stood  for 
socialism  and  anarchy.  Justice  and  the  whole  social  order 
were  overthrown,  and  the  power  of  Britain  and  Pro- 
testantism ruined  for  ever  in  Ireland.  The  Ascendancy 
posed  as  victims  to  the  excesses  of  the  Land  League,  and 
defenders  of  the  Empire  and  of  British  unity  against  Home 
Rule  ideas.  With  the  growth  of  Imperialism  a  breath  of 
intransigeant  reaction  passed  through  the  Irish  Unionists, 
exalting  their  hopes  and  accentuating  their  pretensions. 
When  after  the  rejection  of  Home  Rule  the  Conservative 
Government  thought  that  it  was  its  duty  to  enter,  though 
timidly  at  first,  into  the  path  of  concession  and  concilia- 
tion, their  fury  knew  no  bounds.  Was  it  possible  that 
England  could  act  thus  towards  her  colony,  which  in  1800 
had  thrown  itself  into  her  arms  to  preserve  its  ascendancy  ? 
Was  this  ascendancy  to  be  now  plucked  from  it  piece  by 
piece  by  England  herself,  and  by  a  Unionist  and  Tory 
Government  ?  The  limit  was  passed.  Hence  they  began, 
and  for  the  past  ten  years  have  continued,  to  complain 
and  protest  with  renewed  vigour  against  the  Government. 
"  We  are  here  at  the  will  of  England  and  in  the  service 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    in 

of  England.  We  are  flesh  of  her  flesh  and  bone  of  her  bone. 
It  is  her  Bible  that  we  read,  her  Psalms  that  we  sing,  her 
blood  that  runs  in  our  veins.  For  centuries  we  have  been 
her  champions  in  Ireland  ;  all  that  we  have  done  was 
done  for  her  and  through  her.  We  represent  progress  and 
civilisation,  the  Empire  and  the  flag.  We  are  the  incarna- 
tion of  loyalty  in  the  heart  of  the  Rebel  Island.  We  it 
was  who  defeated  Home  Rule,  and  upon  us  depends  the 
future  of  English  power  in  Ireland.  Like  the  South 
African  loyalists,  we  have  a  right  to  the  countenance  and 
support  of  England.  Now  England  for  a  century  has  been 
despoiling  us  of  our  rights  and  of  our  very  liberty.  We 
are  sacrificed  ;  we,  the  loyalists,  for  love  of  the  rebels,  and 
in  the  vain  hope  of  conciliating  the  irreconcilables.  By 
your  concessions  you  will  only  add  to  the  demands  and 
the  effrontery  of  the  Nationalists.  It  is  your  weakness 
that  has  provoked  all  the  crimes  in  Ireland.  Concessions 
and  conciliation  stand  for  betrayal  and  weakness.  Is  it 
any  fault  of  ours  that  we  are  a  loyal  and  isolated  minority 
in  the  midst  of  a  disloyal  majority  ?  Is  this  a  reason  why 
the  weak  should  be  sacrificed  to  the  strong,  and  the 
faithful  to  the  rebel  ?  Be  careful  !  If  the  persecution 
continues,  the  Garrison  will  have  no  course  left  but  to  go 
over  to  the  enemy.  A  day  will  come  when  England  will 
need  us  again  to  fight  her  battles  against  the  rebels. 
Please  God  that  she  may  still  find  us  in  her  service, 
neither  too  discouraged  nor  too  weak  to  defend  once  more 
the  cause  of  the  Union  and  of  the  Empire." 

Such  are  the  complaints  and  the  menaces  that  come 
from  the  more  extreme  of  the  so-called  loyalists  of  Ireland, 
from  the  ultras  of  the  two  sections  of  the  colony,  the 
Orangemen  of  Ulster  and  the  Tories  of  the  Anglican 
Ascendancy  ;  from  the  large  landlords,  who  are  all-powerful 
in  the  Kildare  Street  Club  and  in  the  Landowners'  Con- 
vention ;  from  the  well-to-do  middle  class,  the  rich  manu- 
facturers, the  professors  of  Trinity  College.  They  never 
cease  calling  the  Garrison  to  arms.  As  Unionists  they 
make  war  on  the  Government  when  it  is  Liberal,  because 


ii2         POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

it  is  friendly  to  the  Nationalists  ;  they  oppose  it  even 
when  it  is  Unionist  and  Conservative  because  then  it 
seems  lukewarm  in  their  cause.1  They  carry  on  a  cam- 
paign for  a  policy  of  coercion  against  a  policy  of  reform, 
and  demand  compensation  for  their  lost  privileges.  The 
condition  of  mind  of  these  extremists  is  indeed  strange  ; 
they  are  more  royalist  than  the  King,  more  imperialistic 
and  reactionary  than  their  English  brothers  and  friends. 
"  Ireland  is  a  land  of  many  sorrows,"  said  John  Bright. 
"  Men  fight  for  supremacy  and  call  it  Protestantism  ; 
they  fight  for  evil  and  bad  laws  and  call  it  acting 
in  defence  of  property."  Liberty,  as  the  extremists 
understand  it,  means  their  own  supremacy.  To  touch 
their  privileges  is  to  make  an  attempt  upon  the  honour 
of  the  Empire.  As  loyalists,  they  threaten  to  throw  the 
Crown  into  the  Boyne  if  the  Crown  does  not  behave  as 
they  wish.  It  is  in  Ireland  as  at  the  Cape.  The  Milners 
and  the  Jamesons,  who  provoked  the  South  African  War, 
are  brothers  of  the  Irish  Londonderrys  and  Abercorns. 
Begetters  of  hatred  and  of  anti-English  feeling,  they  are  in 
Ireland  as  in  Africa,  to  use  the  phrase  of  an  Irishman, 
"  the  bilious  deposit  on  the  national  stomach." 

This  outburst  of  reaction  on  the  part  of  the  extremists 
could  not  fail  to  provoke  a  contrary  movement  on  the  part 
of  the  Unionists  who  were  less  blinded  by  personal  interests 
and  Celtophobia.  For  a  long  time  the  struggle  against 
Home  Rule  had  maintained  an  appearance  of  unity  in 
the  "  bloc."  There  was,  however,  very  little  homogeneity 
in  its  nature,  and  it  was  composed  of  the  most  diverse 
elements,  landlords  and  peasants,  Conservatives  and 
Liberals,  Anglicans  and  Presbyterians.  As  soon  as  danger 
had  been  staved  off  for  the  time  being,  by  the  double 
rejection  of  Gladstone's  Bills  in  1886  and  1893,  a  schism 

1  In  November,  1900,  they  brought  about  the  downfall  of  one  of  the 
men  who,  from  the  Unionist  side,  had  done  most  good  for  Ireland, 
Sir  Horace  Plunkett.  He  was  accused  of  complicity  with  the 
Nationalists.  They  also  caused  the  recall  of  two  Unionist  Chief 
Secretaries,  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour  and  Mr.  George  Wyndham,  who  had 
promoted  a  conciliatory  policy.  The  Irish  Unionists  in  Parliament 
frequently  vote  against  the  Unionist  government. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY    113 

was  certain  to  develop  between  the  extremists  and  the 
moderates,  between  the  blind  and  the  far-seeing.  Hence, 
during  the  last  ten  years  there  have  been  divisions  in  the 
"bloc."  It  will  be  useful  here  to  indicate  the  significance 
and  direction  of  these  new  developments,  which  are  worthy 
of  study  not  so  much  perhaps  for  their  present  importance 
but  as  symptoms  of  the  future  to  which  they  bear  witness. 
In  Ulster  the  rupture  between  the  democratic  and 
aristocratic  elements  is  already  manifesting  itself  clearly 
enough.  In  Belfast,  as  in  some  other  towns,  weary  of  the 
yoke  of  the  Tories,  and  of  the  reactionary  oligarchy,  which 
has  set  itself  at  the  head  of  Orangeism  and  uses  it  in  the 
interests  of  class,  a  certain  number  of  Orange  democrats 
have  seceded  from  the  official  Orange  organisation  to 
found  an  independent  Orangeism  as  anti-Catholic  as  the 
other,  but  very  Radical  in  its  tendencies,  and  strongly 
hostile  to  the  ruling  Toryism.  In  the  country,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  is  against  the  land  system  and  landlordism 
that  the  peasants  of  Ulster  have  revolted.  This  move- 
ment is  led  by  an  energetic  chief,  a  worthy  rival  of  the 
Sharman-Crawfords,  the  Duffys,  and  the  land  reformers  of 
the  middle  nineteenth  century,  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell.  These 
tenants  are  simple  and  poor,  and  they  enjoy  no  privilege 
except  that  Tenant  Right  which  dates  back  to  their 
charter  of  settlement,  and  which  they  have  always  been 
able  to  make  respected.  With  them  the  passion  for  the 
land  dominates  sectarian  passion  and  anti-Catholicism. 
The  religious  war  has  little  hold  upon  the  rural  masses. 
"  The  Pope  is  no  doubt  a  terrible  man,"  said  John  Mitchel, 
"  but  his  Holiness  has  no  writs  out  in  Ulster."  Self-interest 
then  draws  the  Ulster  peasantry  to  the  cause  of  their 
brethren  of  the  South.  As  Protestants  and  loyalists  they 
do  not  work  with  the  Nationalists,  and  their  leader,  Mr. 
Russell,  is  one  of  the  men  who,  during  the  Home  Rule 
crisis,  fought  with  the  greatest  ardour  for  the  cause  of  the 
Union.  But  weary,  like  their  southern  brethren,  of  the 
yoke  of  landlordism,  they  wish  to  become  masters  of  the 
soil  by  a  general  purchase  of  their  lands  and  expropriation 


ii4         POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

of  the  landlords.  Thus  from  North  to  South  the  agrarian 
proletariat,  Orange  and  Nationalist,  has  risen  against  the 
landed  oligarchy  of  the  soil,  just  as  in  urban  Ulster  the 
Radical  democracy  has  risen  against  the  political  oligarchy. 
These  are  the  signs  of  the  times  which  have  given  cause 
for  reflection  to  a  part  at  least  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
oligarchy,  whether  they  be  of  the  landlord  or  the  middle 
class.  These  persons  of  moderate  tendencies  are  not  satisfied 
with  the  reactionary  policy  of  the  extremists,  and  they 
are  separated  from  the  latter  on  the  question  of  the 
general  attitude  that  should  be  adopted  towards  Ireland 
and  the  Irish  democracy.  This  has  produced  a  new 
fissure  in  the  Unionist  ranks,  affecting  in  this  case  the 
Anglican  class,  the  Ascendancy.  There  have  always  been 
in  the  Irish  Ascendancy  both  Tories  and  Whigs.  These 
last  were  born  to  political  life  in  the  second  half  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  with  Flood,  Lucas,  and,  above  all, 
Grattan.  During  the  first  three-quarters  of  the  nineteenth, 
owing  to  their  relative  Liberalism,  they  were  often  elected 
members  of  Parliament  by  the  Catholic  peasants  in 
opposition  to  the  great  Tory  landlords.  More  tolerant 
than  the  latter,  less  irreconcilable,  less  hostile  to  every- 
thing Irish,  they  seem  at  present  nearer  to  an  acceptance 
of  what  is  inevitable,  the  official  downfall  of  their  class. 
They  seem  to  understand  that  the  reign  of  the  oligarchy 
is  ended,  and  that  landlordism  is  dead.  The  remnant  of 
their  privileges  will  be  carried  away  by  the  next  wave  ; 
the  heroic  hour,  that  of  battle  and  of  glory,  has  gone  by, 
and  the  hour  of  departure  has  sounded.  The  small  land- 
lords and  middle-class  people  are  asking  themselves 
whether  they  have  no  better  prospect  before  them  than  to 
be  sacrificed  to  the  political  ambitions  of  those  ultra-Tories, 
masters  of  wealth,  place  and  power,  those  lofty  personages 
who  have  no  thought  but  of  the  battle,  and  make  use 
of  smaller  men  without  being  of  any  use  to  them  in  return. 
Do  they  not  behave,  in  fact,  as  do  the  Orange  leaders 
towards  the  Belfast  proletariat  ?  Have  they  nothing 
better  to  offer  the  peasants  and  the  people  of  Ireland  than 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  THE  ENGLISH  COLONY  115 

a  war  to  the  death  ?  Will  they  never  find  their  father- 
land in  Erin  ?  Should  they  not,  as  good  sportsmen,  take 
their  part  in  the  new  order  of  things,  and  try  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  new  situation,  and  to  work  for  the 
prosperity  of  Ireland  ?  The  Garrison  is  no  more,  but 
there  may  yet  be  a  place  in  the  future  for  an  Irish 
aristocracy. 

Such  are  the  views  which  would  seem  to  have  haunted,  for 
ten  years  or  so,  a  certain  number  of  Liberal  landlords, 
such  as  Lord  Monteagle,  Lord  Castletown,  Lord  Dunraven, 
and  Lord  Mayo.  These  landlords  have  inspired  a  policy 
of  reform  and  conciliation,  and  no  longer  cling,  as  did  their 
fathers  and  as  do  their  neighbours,  the  extremists,  to  a 
purely  negative  programme.  They  are  ambitious  to 
do  something  positive  for  the  reconstruction  of  Ireland. 
They  wish  to  re-make  the  country,  to  reform  abuseSj  to 
usher  in  a  reign  of  tolerance,  and  to  unite  classes  and 
parties  ;  their  highest  hope  being  to  create  a  moderate 
party  between  the  extremes  of  left  and  right.  In  1895 
they  took  part,  although  without  much  perseverance,  in 
the  agitation  against  the  over-taxation  of  Ireland,  and 
they  helped  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  on  the  Recess  Committee 
in  his  work  for  the  amelioration  of  the  economic  condition 
of  the  country.  In  1898  they  were  associated  with  the 
foundation  of  elective  local  government.  In  1902  they 
took  the  initiative  in  a  rapprochement  with  the  farmers, 
with  a  view  to  the  solution  of  the  land  question,  and  a 
Land  Conference  was  held  under  the  presidency  of  Lord 
Dunraven.  It  was  composed  of  representatives  of  the 
two  parties,  and  laid  down  the  basis  for  a  plan  of  general 
land  purchase  which  prepared  the  way  for  the  Land  Act 
of  1903.  More  recently  still  an  Irish  Reform  Association 
was  founded,  with  the  object  of  gaining  under  the  existing 
regime  of  the  Union  all  those  reforms  necessary  for  any 
amelioration  of  the  present  condition  of  Ireland.  They 
are  not  Home  Rulers,  and  they  do  not  ask  for  an  Irish 
Parliament,  but  they  would  like  to  see  a  large  develop- 
ment of  local  government,  which  would  give  Ireland  some 


u6       POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

rights  over  the  administration  of  her  own  finance,  and 
definite  powers  in  the  matter  of  private  Bills — in  short, 
such  effective  control  of  purely  Irish  affairs  as  may  be 
compatible  with  the  maintenance  of  legislative  union 
between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  and  with  the  supre- 
macy of  the  Imperial  Parliament.2 

There  is  still  a  great  deal  of  prejudice,  timidity,  and  even 
personal  interest,  in  the  views  and  tendencies  of  the 
Liberal  section  of  the  oligarchy,  and  Nationalist  Ireland 
has  not  accepted  their  advances  without  reserve  and 
distrust.  The  movement  is  fraught  with  consequences 
for  the  Ireland  of  to-morrow,  but  its  future  is  still  obscure, 
as  is  that  of  the  Ascendancy  itself.  Will  the  colony  as  a 
whole  accept  its  fall  and  the  law  of  the  majority  ?  Land- 
lordism is  condemned,  but  will  the  landlords  go  with  it  ? 
No  one  will  regret  the  disappearance  of  the  extremists, 
the  Ultras,  the  absentees  who  have  no  ties  in  the  country. 
In  the  past  by  their  tyranny  and  entire  disregard  of  their 
mission  of  civilisation  they  dishonoured  the  English 
regime  in  Ireland.  In  the  present  they  have  no  other 
political  conception  than  that  of  a  system  of  public  spoil, 
and  as  for  loyalty,  they  can  only  say  that  it  does  not  pay. 
But  manv  will  remain  on  their  own  demesnes,  especially 
the  small  landlords,  to  whom  Ireland  means  something 
more  than  land  to  sell,  and  patriotism  something  beyond 
their  rents.  They  will  be  able  to  adapt  themselves  to 
their  new  position,  and  it  is  perhaps  not  too  Utopian  to 
suppose  that  after  one  or  two  generations,  when  they  have 
no  more  to  hope  for  from  the  Government,  and  above  all, 
when  Home  Rule  comes  in  some  form  or  other,  they  will 
be  Irish  in  heart  and  soul,  Hibernis  ipsis  Hiberniores.  Many 
of  them  will  make  for  themselves  a  place  among  a  people 
from  whom  they  are  now  divided  by  an  impassible  barrier. 
And  this  may  well  mean  the  beginning  for  England  of 
the  real  "  Irish  difficulty." 

2  See  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Irish  Reform  Association.  Cf.  the 
Earl  of  Dunraven's  The  Crisis  in  Ireland,  London  and  Dublin,  1905  ; 
and  his  Outlook  in  Ireland,  1907. 


CHAPTER    IL— THE  TWO  IRELANDS  : 
NATIONAL  IRELAND 

Over  against  the  British  ';  Colony  "  stands  the  Ireland 
of  the  people — the  national  Ireland  of  history,  the  Ireland 
which  England  has  not  dared  to  exterminate,  and  which 
she  has  been  unable  in  seven  centuries  either  to  conciliate 
or  to  absorb.  It  is  in  this  Ireland  that  a  political  and 
social  regeneration  is  slowly  going  forward,  the  results  of 
which  are  still  incomplete. 

This  Ireland  is  to  be  denned  and  delimited  in  a  negative 
way.  All  those  who  belong  neither  to  the  "  Garrison  " 
nor  to  the  "  Colony  ;:  may  be  classed  within  it.  It  is 
mainly,  but  not  exclusively,  Catholic.  It  has  won  and 
continues  to  win  many  recruits  from  the  Protestant  ranks, 
as,  on  the  other  hand,  many  Catholics  rally  to  the  support 
of  the  "  Garrison."  There  is  no  homogeneity  in  its  ethnic 
origins  ;  it  includes  descendants  of  the  old  Gaels,  of  the 
Danish  invaders,  of  the  Anglo-Normans,  of  the  English 
of  Elizabeth  and  of  Cromwell.  The  great-grand-children 
of  the  Ironsides  rub  shoulders  in  its  ranks  with  the  great- 
grand-children  of  the  old  Celtic  chiefs,  the  greater  number 
of  whom  are  now  to  be  found,  as  Sir  Jonah  Barrington 
has  said,  among  the  coal-porters  and  quay-labourers  of 
Dublin. 

It  was,  as  we  have  said,  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
under  the  strong  hand  of  the  Protector,  that  this  national 
Ireland  was  formed,  through  the  braying  and  fusing 
together  of  all  the  Irish  of  that  day,  of  all  the  former 
occupants  of  Erin.  The  plantations  and  massacres 
turned  the  conquered  into  a  rabble  of  miserable  and 
pitiful  helots  without  land,  law,  or  rights  of  any  kind. 


ti8         POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

The  aristocracy  was  destroyed  ;  the  bourgeoisie  had  fled 
or  had  been  run  to  earth  ;  the  peasant  democracy,  in 
the  phrase  of  Lord  Derby,  was  "  nothing  more  than  a 
part  of  the  livestock  upon  the  estate  of  the  landlord." 
A  century  went  by,  and  with  the  relaxation  of  the  Penal 
Laws  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  the 
period  of  freedom  from  1782  to  1795,  an  improvement  set 
in.  Ireland,  by  means  of  commerce  and  education,  began 
to  reconstruct  for  herself  an  independent  middle  class, 
taught  in  good  classical  schools  by  old  priests  with  a 
continental  education.  There  was  a  Limerick  draper  in 
those  times — the  story  is  still  told  by  his  descendants — 
who  would  recite  Homer  for  half  an  hour  without  a 
mistake.  His  eldest  son  translated  Horace.  The  Catholic 
Emancipation  Act  of  1829  enabled  Catholics,  who  had 
been  electors  since  1793,  to  hold  seats  in  Parliament.  But 
the  same  Act  withdrew  the  vote  from  the  greater  part 
of  the  peasantry.  It  opened  public  offices  to  Catholics  ; 
but  this  was  a  vain  concession,  for  they  were  still  excluded 
by  custom  and  practice.  In  certain  respects  the  conces- 
sion was  even  hurtful,  for  it  whetted  the  appetites  of  all  the 
renegades,  Whigs,  and  opportunists,  made  them  eligible 
for  governmental  patronage,  and  thus  destroyed 
Catholic  solidarity.  Soon  afterwards  the  Great  Famine 
and  emigration  dealt  a  mortal  blow  to  the  peasantry  and 
even  to  the  middle  classes,  for  the  latter  were  recruited 
from  the  peasants,  and  that  source  was  now  exhausted. 
It  was  Mr.  Gladstone,  who,  as  everyone  knows,  in  1869 
opened  the  era  of  those  great  reforms  which  were,  if  not 
to  make  Ireland  wholly  free,  at  least  to  liberate  her  from 
most  of  her  chains.  Legislation  was  passed  which  gave 
the  peasantry  security  of  tenure,  and  led  the  way  to  a 
scheme  of  voluntary  land  purchase.  In  1884  the  Suffrage 
was  made  quasi-universal,1  and  in  1898  a  system  of 
elective    local    administration    was    established.       But 

1  Ireland  had,  in  1832,  92,152  electors  out  of  7,767,401  inhabitants, 
i.e.,  no  percent.  (Acts  of  1829  and  1832).  An  Act  of  1850  slightly 
enlarged  the  Irish  electorate,  which  the  English  reforms  of  1867-8 
did  not  touch  ;   in  1868  Ireland  had  222,450  electors.     The  Act  of  1884 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL  IRELAND     119 

Ireland  did  not  succeed  in  obtaining  either  a  government 
of  her  choice,  or  the  political  reforms  which,  by  whatever 
names,  they  may  be  called,  would  confer  autonomy 
upon  her.  Her  political  evolution  has  stopped  half- 
way. 

Stripped  of  her  aristocracy,  with  no  leaders  except  the 
clergy,  cruelly  decimated  and  drained  by  the  everlasting 
curse  of  emigration,  Ireland  still  finds  in  the  peasantry 
her  most  numerous  class  and  her  best  support.  The 
farmers  or  tenants,  who  are  now  legally  invested  with 
real  rights,  and  with  guarantees  against  the  landlords, 
although  in  many  respects  they  are  from  the  social  point 
of  view  still  enslaved,  are  tending  to  become  by  purchase 
the  owners  of  the  soil.  But  the  labourers  and  agricultural 
workers  are  in  poorer  case.  They  have  neither  decent 
homes  nor  an  assured  wage,  for  if  there  is  a  shortage  of 
labour  in  Ireland,  there  is  also  a  shortage  of  regular  work 
for  the  labourers.  Industry  is  in  a  very  reduced  condition, 
and  the  working  classes  naturally  share  in  the  depression. 
Finally,  the  middle  class,  which  was  so  profoundly  affected 
by  the  Great  Famine,  is  regaining  its  ground,  but  only  by 
slow  and  difficult  stages,  for  lack  of  opportunity.  As  a 
consequence,  they  are  still  weak  both  in  numbers  and  in 
culture  ;  their  secondary  education  is  bad,  and  higher 
education  is  practically  closed  to  them  ;  and  they  have 
little  wealth,  for  Irish  commerce  and  industry  are  in  a 
stagnant  condition.  Moreover,  they  are  thrown  back,  by 
an  unintelligent  system  of  education,  upon  the  so-called 
liberal  professions,  and  at  their  highest  can  only  hope  to 
reach  the  level  of  the  Protestant  bourgeoisie,  without 
becoming  really  one  with  it.  The  Protestants  are  a 
fallen  aristocracy,  and  they  are  contemptuous  of  the 
Catholics,  who  are  a  rising  democracy. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  believe  that  the  various  classes 
which  make  up  national  Ireland  have  derived  from  their 

finally  put  Ireland  on  the  same  electoral  footing  as  England  ;  in  1886 
she  had  742,120  electors  in  a  population  of  5,174,836,  or  14  per  cent. 
(Comte  de  Franqueville,  Le  Gouvernment  et  le  Parlement  Britanniques, 
Paris,  1887,  II.,  p.  300-325). 


120         POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

common  misfortunes  and  their  common  struggles  such 
wisdom  as  would  lead  them  to  confront  England  and  the 
English  colony  in  a  solid  and  coherent  mass,  free  from 
division  and  strong  in  unity.  Unfortunately  it  would 
seem  to  be  a  very  general  law  that  slavery  and  suffering 
engender  dissension,  and  excite  party  against  party. 
Each  party  has  the  same  end  before  it,  the  salvation  and 
liberty  of  the  country  ;  but  this  end  is  understood  in 
various  ways,  and  there  is  no  agreement  on  the  methods 
of  attaining  it.  Ireland,  during  her  ascent  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  has  given  birth  to  political  divisions,  and 
from  the  time  of  O'Connell's  first  triumphs  she  has  hardly 
once  achieved,  even  under  Parnell,  that  perfect  political 
cohesion  which  is  no  doubt  a  chimera,  and  which  in  any 
case  the  conqueror  can  so  easily  break,  and  has  so  much 
interest  in  breaking.  The  Liberator  found  his  enemies 
in  Young  Ireland,  and  Young  Ireland  had  to  encounter 
the  opposition  of  John  Mitchel  and  the  Revolutionaries. 
Democratic,  or  (to  use  the  consecrated  term) 
"  Nationalist  "  Ireland  has  always  had  its  factions,  not  to 
speak  of  those  perverts  who  have  gone  over  to  Unionism, 
sometimes  from  conviction — for  anything  may  happen — 
and  sometimes  from  interest  and  ambition,  as  did  Keogh, 
who  in  1852  betrayed  the  hopes  of  the  constitutional 
party.  It  is  an  example  which  will  never  lack  imitators. 
We  may  surely  accept  it  as  a  platitude  that  political 
divisions  of  men  in  the  same  social  strata  may  be  referred 
in  origin  to  their  temperament  rather  than  to  their 
doctrines.  If  we  put  on  one  side,  then,  the  moderates 
and  the  opportunists,  and  on  the  other  the  more  violent 
and  extreme  parties,  we  find  ourselves  confronted  in 
Ireland  with  the  constitutional  Nationalists,  who  are  the 
most  numerous  and  most  powerful  party,  and  the 
Separatist  minority — the  Intransigeants  or  Extremists, 
the  adherents  of  "  Physical  Force," — who  are  the 
successors  and  modern  emulators  of  the  old 
Fenians. 


THE    TWO  IRELANDS:    NATIONAL  IRELAND     121 


I. — Separatism  or  "  Physical  Force." 

Fenianism,  or  "  physical  force  "  that  is  to  say, 
revolutionary  action,  by  conspiracy  or  armed  rebellion, 
with  the  overthrow  of  British  power  in  Ireland  and  the 
separation  of  Ireland  from  England  as  the  end  in  view, 
is  but  one  phase  in  the  eternal  war  of  the  two  countries. 
It  is  the  secret  war  which  has  replaced  open  war  since 
the  time  when  Ireland  ceased  to  be  in  a  position  to  fight 
her  powerful  neighbour  on  equal  terms.  The  first  great 
date  in  the  new  period  is  the  Insurrection  of  1798,  and 
its  first  great  man  is  Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  closely  followed 
by  Robert  Emmet,  the  young  and  generous  martyr  ol  the 
patriotic  rebellion.  The  gospel  of  "  Physical  Force  "  was 
discredited  for  a  long  while  by  the  success,  rather 
apparent  perhaps  than  real,  of  O'Connell  and 
Constitutional  agitation  ;  but  it  awoke  again  to  life 
towards  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  amid  the 
horrors  of  the  Great  Famine  and  the  stir  of  Continental 
revolutions.  With  John  Mitchel  it  created  that  move- 
ment of  revolt  into  which  Young  Ireland  was  drawn,  and 
which  with  Smith  O'Brien  came  to  a  miserable  end — 
killed  rather  by  the  thunderbolt  of  the  clergy,  than  by 
the  powder  of  the  British  army. 

It  reappeared  in  a  new  form  in  1858, 1865,  and  1867,  under 
the  name  of  Fenianism,  with  Stephens  and  O'Donovan 
Rossa,  aided  by  support  from  America,  and  made  itself 
active  through  secret  societies,  raids,  and  coups  de  main. 
But  the  Revolution  failed  to  come  into  being,  and  the 
movement  fell  into  the  ways  of  crime,  and  was  dishonoured 
by  the  outrages  of  the  Invincibles  and  the  dynamiters. 
But  although  insurrection  and  rebellion  have  proved 
abortive,  and  conspiracy  given  way  to  anarchy,  the 
revolutionary  spirit  is  not  yet  dead  in  Ireland.  It  has 
survived  its  reverses,  altering  its  methods  but  not  its 
doctrines,  and  we  recognise  its  spirit  in  the  intransigeant 
"  Separatism  "  of  to-day. 


122         POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

What  is  at  the  bottom  of  this  revolutionary  force  to 
which,  despite  its  apparent  failures,  Ireland  owes  the 
small  measure  of  reparation  which  she  has  obtained  from 
England  ?  There  is,  before  and  beyond  all,  hatred  of 
England,  inexpiable  hatred  of  the  English  yoke,  of 
English  tyranny  and  corruption  in  Ireland.  There  is, 
further,  the  conviction  that  Ireland  will  never  have  a 
chance  to  live  her  life  until  separated  from  England,  and 
that  national  freedom  can  never  proceed  from  "  moral 
force"  but  from  "physical  force"  alone.  Distinct  and 
different  from  Whiteboyism — that  is,  agrarian  assassina- 
tion in  the  service  of  the  tenant's  private  vengeance 
against  the  landlord — the  Physical  Force  party,  unlike 
the  Constitutional,  has  no  care  for  the  claims  of  this  or 
that  class  of  citizens,  whether  it  be  for  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion or  peasant  rights.  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been  care- 
ful not  to  put  the  cause  of  national  freedom  in  tow  of 
the  cause  of  the  farmers.  With  regard  to  the  land 
question,  it  preaches  a  doctrine  of  nationalisation  of  the 
soil  which  is  directly  contrary  to  the  ideas  of  the  Irish 
peasantry.  It  hates  the  landlords,  but  much  less  because 
they  are  landlords  than  because  they  are  the  English 
garrison.  Perhaps  at  the  bottom  of  its  heart  it  cherishes 
the  dream  of  an  Irish  republic.  But  at  present  it  has 
but  one  ideal,  one  end  :  the  liberation  of  Ireland,  the 
attainment  of  national  freedom  by  the  path  of  separa- 
tion. 

The  Irish  Physical  Force  party  is  in  its  nature  clearly 
distinct  from  the  various  revolutionary  forces  which  have 
been  at  work  on  the  Continent  during  the  course  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  though  it  resembles  them  in  one 
sense,  since  like  them  it  rejects  a  priori  all  constitutional 
methods,  and  disdains  reform  as  a  substitute  for 
revolution.  Of  Continental  Anarchism  it  has  no  strain, 
except  in  those  desperate  moments  in  which  it  has 
practically  lapsed  into  anarchism.  It  has  not  for 
psychological  basis  the  spirit  of  revolt  against  fact,  nor 
the  primitive  design  of  destroying  everything  to  make 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL  IRELAND     123 

room  for  the  Utopia  of  a  new  world  which  should  proceed 
by  spontaneous  generation  from  the  ruins  of  the  old. 
Faced  with  the  social  miseries  of  the  time,  it  has  not, 
like  Revolutionary  Socialism,  acquired  the  desire  to 
substitute  for  an  egoistic  and  bourgeois  society  a 
communistic  and  humanitarian  one.  It  does  not,  like 
Russian  Nihilism,  represent  the  effort  of  an  intellectual 
proletariat  to  destroy  an  autocracy.  Nothing  is  further 
from  its  national  aspirations  than  the  Federalist  doctrines 
of  the  Paris  Commune.  Nothing  is  more  foreign  to  it 
than  that  first  principle  of  Continental  Socialism,  the 
Class  War  ;  and  it  never  ceases  to  preach  the  union  of 
classes  and  creeds  under  the  aegis  of  Irish  nationality. 
Its  source  is  to  be  found  not  in  a  social  nor  in  a  moral 
malady,  but  in  a  political  fact,  the  stranger's  yoke  ;  not 
in  the  bad  government  of  England  but  in  the  very  fact 
of  British  domination.  "Not  foreign  government  but  foreign 
rule  is  Ireland's  bane,"  said  Wolfe  Tone.  Of  continental 
revolutionaries  perhaps  they  resemble  most  the  men  of 
1848,  with  their  dreams  of  popular  freedom  and  their 
national  enthusiasm.  One  thinks  of  a  Mazzini  or  a 
Garibaldi  crying,  Fuori  i  Barbari.2 

What  traces  of  Fenianism  or  of  "  physical  force  " 
remain  in  the  movement  ?  There  remains  less  an  active 
party  of  deed  than  a  propagandist  party  of  doctrine  ; 
and  the  doctrine  is  rather  a  manifesto  of  intransigeance 
than  a  positive  programme.  Clearly  the  situation  has 
changed  during  the  last  half  century.  Ireland  is 
disarmed,  and  rebellion,  at  least  in  time  of  general  peace, 
is  impossible.  The  devotees  of  physical  force,  then,  can 
for  the  present  only  cultivate  the  revolutionary  attitude, 

2  The  greater  part  of  the  leaders  of  the  revolutionary  party  have 
been  of  the  middle  class,  and  as  many  Catholic  as  Protestant.  Wolfe 
Tone  was  the  son  of  a  Presbyterian  carriage-builder  in  Dublin  ;  Mitchel 
of  a  Presbyterian  minister  ;  Robert  Emmet  of  a  Protestant  doctor, 
Kickham,  Luby  and  John  O'Leary  were  doctors  or  medical  students. 
O'Mahony  was  a  gentleman  farmer  from  Tipperary.  There  was  nothing 
of  the  déclassé  about  them  ;  they  were  not  crazed  by  that  kind  of  science 
which  does  not  bring  bread  or  a  career.  Even  to-day  there  are 
Separatists  in  Belfast,  and  even  among  the  students  of  Trinity 
College. 


i24        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

and  preach  the  Separatist  propaganda.  Nevertheless,  for 
the  last  twenty-five  years  the  course  of  events  has 
influenced  many  minds,  and  sometimes  the  most  moderate, 
in  the  direction  of  intransigeance.  This  is  no  doubt  to 
be  ascribed  to  the  growth  of  English  Imperialism,  to  the 
failure  of  Parnellism  and  the  rejection  of  Home  Rule, 
to  the  spectacle  of  those  dissensions  during  which  the 
politicians  gave  themselves  up  to  self-admiration  over 
Parnell's  corpse,  and  to  the  emigration  which  continues 
to  drain  the  country's  best  blood.  All  this  has  produced 
the  recent  development  in  Ireland  of  "  extremist  "  ideas, 
and  of  the  party  which  upholds  them,  a  party  which 
includes  enthusiasts  who  would  prepare  a  future  for  Ireland, 
dreamers  living  upon  an  ideal,  independent  men  who 
have  become  disgusted  with  the  weaknesses  and  com- 
promises of  Parliamentarianism,  a  few  literary  men,  and 
a  populace  dominated  by  hatred  of  England,  with  the 
inevitable  following  of  corner  boys  and  worthless  persons 
which  a  propaganda,  preaching  revolution,  ever  attracts. 
They  have  retained  the  primary  thesis  of  the  old 
revolutionaries,  namely,  that  outside  of  separation  there 
is  no  salvation.  It  is  this  thesis  which  they  brandish 
to-day  in  the  faces  of  the  moderate  Nationalists,  against 
the  Home  Rulers,  and  against  Home  Rule  itself.  "  Home 
Rule  would  be  useless,"  they  say.  "  Liberty  to  be  sure 
must  be  complete.  It  would  be  so  with  the  Repeal  of 
the  Union  which  O'Connell  claimed  ;  it  would  not  be  so 
with  a  scheme  of  subordinate  autonomy,  for  under  those 
conditions  Irish  liberty  would  always  depend  upon  British 
good- will.  As  John  Mitchel  said  :  '  We  must  have 
Ireland  not  for  certain  peers,  or  nominees  of  peers,  in 
College  Green,  but  Ireland  for  the  Irish.'  We  want  a 
veritable  Irish  Parliament,  a  national  and  sovereign 
assembly,  and  not  some  sort  of  a  local  Committee  to 
administer  '  gas  and  water  '  and  other  small  affairs  of 
the  same  nature.  Your  Home  Rule  is  but  a  decoy,  and 
you,  the  Home  Rulers,  are,  willingly  or  unwillingly,  mere 
Unionists,  for  you  accept  the  British  chain  and  do  not 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL  IRELAND     125 

strive  to  break  it.  You  should  once  for  all  cut  the  Gordian 
knot,  and  by  Separation  assure  National  Independence 

"  Legal  and  constitutional  action  will  not  lead  us  to  that 
independence.  England  has  never  yielded  except  to  fear 
or  to  constraint,  and  the  famous  doctrine  of  moral  force 
has  never  harmed  anyone  except  its  authors.  There  is 
no  use  in  making  speeches,  and  asking  questions,  and 
voting  upon  the  orders  of  the  day,  for  it  is  not  words 
that  will  save  us,  but  deeds.  Has  Ireland  ever  gained 
anything  from  this  game  of  dupery  which  is  played  at 
Westminster  ?  Has  she  the  right  to  compromise  herself 
by  sending  representatives  to  the  enemy's  country,  to 
that  Parliament  which  is  for  her,  as  John  Mitchel  said,  a 
den  of  corruption,  a  factory  of  coercion,  and  the  eternal 
witness  of  her  subjection. 

"  For  ten  years,  from  1880  to  1890,  she  had  in  the  House 
of  Commons  a  leader  of  the  first  order,  a  capable  and 
united  party  ;  and  this  party  were  not  able  to  reduce 
the  overtaxation  of  Ireland  by  a  penny  !  The  game  is 
useless  and  degrading  ;  it  is  a  school  of  slavery  and  of 
Anglicisation  ;  Parliamentarianism  can  only  propagate 
the  spirit  of  indifference  and  of  opportunism,  and  will 
always  sacrifice  the  national  ideal  to  the  satisfaction  of 
vanity  and  to  the  traffic  of  self-interest.  And  while  you 
hypnotise  yourself  with  this  Westminster  which  you  make 
the  centre  of  the  world,  you  alone  do  not  perceive  that 
Ireland  is  exhausted  to  death  and  is  dying  at  your 
hands." 

Powerful  in  attack,  violent  to  the  point  of  injustice 
towards  the  Parliamentarians,  the  Separatists  are  less 
happy  in  their  exposition  of  ways  and  means.  They 
proscribe  the  constitutional  method,  but  how  are  they 
going  to  replace  it  ?  They  stand  for  physical  force, 
which  is  at  the  moment  impotent.  But  in  their  view, 
"  physical  force  "  is  not  limited  to  armed  resistance  or 
rebellion,  but  stands  for  everything  outside  moral  force, 
from  parliamentary  obstruction  as  practised  by  Parnell, 
which  is  precisely  the  opposite  of  Parliamentarianism,  to 


126  POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

the  refusal  to  pay  taxes,  and  the  "  no  rent  "  movement. 
Besides,  though  physical  force  be  impossible  to-day,  will 
it  be  so  to-morrow  ?  Will  not  its  day  come  when  a  great 
war  brings  England  into  conflict  with  Europe,  when 
Europe  will  sustain  us  by  force  ?  For  this  future  we 
must  prepare  ourselves  by  propagating  in  the  fust  place 
the  idea  and  the  necessity  of  "  physical  torce,"  and  then 
by  strengthening  the  Irish  nation  from  the  moral  and 
the  material  point  of  view,  and  practising  towards  England 
the  policy  of  exclusion,  that  is  to  say,  by  ignoring  her. 
Sinn  Fein  !  Ourselves  alone  !  We  must  develop  our 
strength,  and  exalt  our  souls.  We  must  have  an  end  of 
weakness  and  compromise.  We  must  follow  the  example 
set  by  Hungary  in  her  victorious  struggle  against  the 
crown  of  the  Hapsburgs.3  If  we  are  refused  autonomy, 
let  us  take  it.  Let  us  hold  British  government  null  and 
void.  Let  us  have  no  more  members  at  Westminster 
but  call  together  a  National  Assembly  in  Dublin.  Let 
us  substitute  courts  of  arbitration  for  the  law  courts. 
Let  us  make  war  on  anglicisation,  emigration,  Irish 
enlistment  in  the  English  army. 4  Let  us  develop  our 
industries,  and  create  a  prosperous  Ireland,  and,  above 
all,  a  national  Ireland,  by  reconstructing  for  ourselves,  by 
means  of  literature,  arts,  and  crafts,  a  truly  Irish 
civilisation.5 

Passive  resistance,  an  irreconcilable  and  separatist 
propaganda,  and  the  refusal  to  recognise  the  Parliament 
of  Westminster — for  we  leave  aside  the  idea  of  the  Gaelic 
revival,  which  does  not  belong  exclusively  to  Separatism, 
and  the  somewhat  puerile  proposal  for  the  constitution 
of    a    State,    at    all    points    Irish,    above    the  English 

3  See  the  pamphlets  published  in  Dublin,  1904  and  1905  (Duffy  &  Co.) 
The  Sinn  Fein  Policy  and  The  Resurrection  of  Hungary,  a  Parallel  for 
Ireland. 

4  It  was  the  Separatists  who  started  the  war  against  emigration  and 
against  the  enlistment  of  soldiers  in  the  British  army.  Thirty  years 
ago,  it  is  said  284  out  of  every  1,000  British  soldiers  were  Irish,  to-day 
only  115. 

5See  later  Chapter  on  the  Gaelic  Movement  in  which  the  Separatist 
party  have  taken  an  active  share. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL  IRELAND     127 

State  in  Ireland — constitute  the  programme  of  modern 
extremism.  Fenianism  has  passed  awaj',  but  Separatism 
has  survived  it.  The  revolutionists  and  conspirators 
have  been  metamorphosed  into  intransigeants,  irrecon- 
cilables,  and  extremists,  who  know  that  their  dream  is 
for  the  present  an  impossible  one,  but  do  not,  for  that 
reason,  alter  in  their  devotion  to  it,  and  who,  in  spite  of 
everything,  uphold  the  banner  of  independence.  They  re- 
present the  reaction  against  the  meanness  and  compromise 
of  politics,  against  English  corruption,  and  Irish  betrayals  ; 
they  represent  the  unalterable  ideal  of  fatherland  as 
opposed  to  the  reigning  spirit  of  opportunism,  the 
impossible  which  one  must  be  bent  on  attaining,  if  one 
wishes,  humanly  speaking,  to  attain  the  possible.  Let 
us  forget,  then,  those  elements  which  must  sometimes  seem 
regrettable  or  ridiculous  in  the  acts  and  ideas  of  these 
potential  rebels,  and  recognise  that  they  constitute  in 
Ireland  the  reserve  force  of  Nationalism,  or  if  one  prefers 
to  put  it,  integral  Nationalism. 


II. — Constitutional  Agitation. 

The  main  division  of  the  political  army  is  made  up  of 
the  "  Constitutionalists,"  or,  as  they  are  usually  called, 
the  "  Nationalists,"  the  term  "  Separatist  "  being  reserved 
for  the  representatives  of  the  Extremist  minority.  Their 
object  is  to  obtain  for  Ireland  the  reparation  which  is 
due  to  her  in  the  political,  economic,  and  social  spheres, 
with  self-government  as  the  crowning  reform.  Self- 
government  in  their  programme  means  the  widest 
attainable  scheme  of  national  autonomy,  whether  it  be 
called  Repeal  as  under  O'Connell,  or  Home  Rule  as  it  is 
to-day,  or  by  any  other  name  such  as  may  be  given  to 
it  in  the  future.  As  for  methods  of  action,  the  Nationalists 
ask  for  none  except  those  which  are  open  to  them  under 
the  constitution,  popular  agitation  and  Parliamentary 
action.     Thus  their  procedure  is  constitutional,  although 


128         POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

their  main  demand  is  precisely  the  reversal  of  the  present 
Irish  constitution.  These  are  the  directing  principles  of 
Constitutional  Nationalism.  Everyone  is  at  liberty  to 
understand  them  according  to  his  taste,  to  interpret  the 
words  "  Constitutional  means  "  in  a  wide  or  a  strict  sense, 
to  make  Irish  autonomy  under  Imperial  supremacy  the 
final  end  of  his  aspirations — "  Separation  is  neither 
possible  nor  desirable,"  Mr.  John  Redmond,  the  present 
leader  of  the  party,  is  reported  to  have  said — or  to  regard 
Home  Rule  as  simply  a  step  towards  a  Separation,  which 
he  regards  as  both  desirable  and  possible. 

This  Nationalism  was  born  in  its  modern  form  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  became  fully 
conscious  of  itself  with  Daniel  O'Connell  when  in  1823 
the  latter  foimed  his  celebrated  Catholic  Association,  and, 
in  1829,  led  into  the  British  Parliament  the  first  Irish 
Parliamentary  Party.  We  thus  find  from  the  beginning 
Parliamentary  action  at  Westminster,  supported  by 
popular  organization  and  agitation  in  Ireland,  which  are 
henceforth  to  be  the  two  legal  weapons  of  the  Nationalist 
movement.  Both  are  necessary,  and  indeed,  as  the 
Irish  say,  the  two  are  inseparable.  Parliamentary  action 
is  necessary  to  uphold  the  national  cause  before  the 
constitutional  tribunal,  and  to  make  the  voice  of  Ireland 
heard  through  the  world,  for  the  whole  world  listens  to 
what  is  said  in  the  British  Parliament.  But  what  would 
be  the  influence  of  an  Irish  party  at  Westminster  if  it 
were  unsupported  by  popular  action  in  Ireland,  if  the 
Irish  people  remained  impassive  spectators  of  the  contest, 
and  failed  to  show  in  effective  fashion  their  determination 
to  support  their  representatives  ?  If  it  be  necessary  for 
Ireland  that  she  should  maintain  on  foreign  soil  a 
"  brigade  "  which,  like  the  Irish  Brigade  at  Fontenoy, 
fights  the  good  fight  against  England,  she  must  likewise 
maintain  at  home  some  form  of  political  organisation  and 
agitation.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  one  to  unite,  discipline, 
and  direct  the  Nationalist  forces  ;  of  the  other  to 
constrain  England,  by  an  energetic  and  skilful  deploying 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL  IRELAND     129 

of  these  same  forces,  to  great  measures  of  reform  such 
as  she  has  never  consented  to  carry  except  when 
confronted  by  threats  and  violence.  "  Agitate,  agitate," 
said  Lord  Salisbury  twenty  years  ago  to  the  Unionists 
of  Ulster  ;  and  Lord  Salisbury  had  not  much  of  the 
professional  agitator  in  him.  "  Nothing  is  got  to-day 
except  through  agitation  !  " 

For  the  last  century  there  has  hardly  been  a  time  at 
which  Ireland  has  not  possessed  some  one  or  other  of 
those  great  Leagues  of  popular  agitation,  and  it  is 
remarkable  that  in  this  respect  she  has  given  modern 
England  her  models.  The  periods  during  which  she  has 
had  none  may,  perhaps,  have  been  periods  of  calm,  but 
they  have  also  been  times  of  political  reaction  and  social 
demoralisation.  Whenever  popular  agitation  has  grown 
slack  and  agitation  feeble,  there  has  been  a  fresh  outbreak 
of  oppression  on  the  part  of  the  "  Castle."  The  Catholic 
Association,  the  first  of  these  Leagues  in  point  of  time, 
was  also  one  of  the  most  perfect.  With  its  association 
in  every  barony,  its  county  committees,  its  central 
committee,  its  "  rent  "  of  a  penny  per  head,  with 
O'Connell  as  its  leader,  and  the  priests  as  its  local  agents, 
it  was  indeed  a  veritable  representative  assembly  of  the 
nation.  Though  an  extra-legal  power,  it  was  better 
respected  and  obeyed  than  the  actual  legal  power  ;  it 
was  a  government  that  could  protect  the  people  and 
train  them  for  action,  while  inculcating  all  the  time  a 
respect  for  order  ;  and  it  succeeded  after  six  years' 
agitation  of  the  most  orderly  character,  and  without 
violence,  in  wresting  from  England  the  concession  which 
had  been  promised  since  the  Union,  namely,  Catholic 
Emancipation.  The  Catholic  Association  was  followed 
by  the  Repeal  Association.  Then,  after  the  Famine  and 
the  Insurrection  of  1848,  came  the  Irish  Tenants'  League, 
whose  activity  awakened  many  hopes  that  were  too  soon 
to  be  deceived.  The  Home  Government  Association  was 
established  in  1870  ;  and  under  Parnell  there  arose  two 
new  organisations,   the  Land  League  and  the  National 

K 


130         POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

League.  These  were  bodies  similar  to  the  present  United 
Irish  League,  which  was  founded  by  Mr.  William  O'Brien 
in  1898,  and  which  will,  when  the  time  comes,  make  room 
for  a  new  organisation,  the  heir  of  all  its  predecessors.1 

The  striking  feature  of  all  these  leagues,  throughout 
the  successive  transformations  which  the  majority  had 
to  undergo,  in  order  to  escape  coercive  laws,  is  their 
democratic  constitution.  Even  under  O'Connell,  despite 
the  predominant  personality  of  the  "  Liberator,"  the 
members  of  the  County  Committee  were  chosen  by  popular 
election,  and  they  in  their  turn  elected  the  members  of 
the  Central  Committee.  Later  on  American  influence 
made  itself  felt  in  the  constitution  of  the  Irish  Leagues, 
and  many  characteristics  of  American  political  organisa- 
tions, of  what  is  called  there  the  "  Machine,"  are 
noticeable,  if  not  in  the  Land  League,  which  was  a 
Committee  of  Public  Safety  rather  than  a  constitutional 
association,  at  least  in  the  National  League  and  in  the 
United  Irish  League  of  to-day. 

The  principle  of  the  formation  of  parties  in  the  United 
States  is,  as  is  known,  the  co-existence  in  each  electoral 
division,  from  the  ward  or  quarter  to  the  State  or  Union, 
of  an  Executive  Committee,  as  a  permanent  organ,  and 
of  an  annual  or  periodical  Convention.  This  Convention, 
which  is  composed  of  delegates  elected  by  the  Convention 
of  the  division  below  it,2  elects  the  members  of  the 
Executive  Committee  as  well  as  the  candidates  for  local 
elections  and  the  delegates  to  the  Convention  of  the 
division  immediately  above  it.  This  rigorous  separation 
of  the  executive  and  representative  powers,  at  all  steps 
of  the  ladder,  this  legal  subordination  of  the  executive 
to  the  representative  power,  is  but  imperfectly  applied 
in  Ireland.     The  United  Irish  League  has  for  basis  local 

1  After  1864  Ireland  had  concurrently  the  National  League,  founded 
by  the  Independent  Constitutionalists,  and  the  National  Association, 
founded  by  the  clergy  with  a  view  to  the  disestablishment  of  the 
Anglican  Church  in  Ireland.  Similarly  after  the  Parnell  split  in  1890 
there  was  a  Parnellite  and  an  anti-Parnellite  organisation. 

2  Or  if  it  be  a  "  primary  "  by  all  the  members. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL  IRELAND     131 

assemblies  or  Branches,  analogous  to  the  American 
"  primaries  "  ;  to  be  a  member  of  a  Branch  one  must 
take  the  pledge  or  engagement  to  obey  the  rules  of  the 
League  and  pay  an  annual  subscription.  Above  the 
branches  in  each  parliamentary  division  there  is  a 
permanent  Executive  and  Convention.  The  Convention 
merely  chooses  the  parliamentary  candidate  ;  the 
Executive  which  does  the  rest  of  the  business  is  not 
named  by  the  Convention  but  is  composed  of  a  certain 
number  of  delegates  from  each  Branch.  A  National 
Directory  and  Convention  stands  at  the  head  of  the  whole 
organisation.  The  Directory  is  composed  of  delegates 
from  the  local  Executives,  to  which  are  added  a  small 
number  of  delegates  of  the  Nationalist  parliamentary 
group  and  of  persons  chosen  by  co-option.  This  Directory 
selects  from  itself  a  standing  Committee  which  exercises 
the  real  power.  As  for  the  National  Annual  Convention 
this  is  a  very  numerous  and  heterogeneous  assembly,  a 
sort  of  composite  parliament  which  includes  delegates 
from  all  the  representative  Nationalist  bodies,  from  the 
Branches  and  Executives  of  the  League,  from  District, 
Town  and  County  Councils,  and  various  other  Nationalist 
organisations^  with  all  the  members  of  the  directories, 
all  Nationalist  M.P.'s,  and  clergymen.  Its  function  is  to 
deliberate  on  the  general  situation  and  on  the  policy  of 
the  Nationalist  party. 4  Thus  it  appears  that  this 
organisation,  taken  as  a  whole,  neither  represents  the 
principle  of  the  election  of  each  representative  assembly 
by  the  assembly  of  the  electoral  grade  below  it,  nor  the 
principle  of  the  nomination  01  each  Executive  by  the 
representative  assembly  of  the  same  grade.     It  has    not 

3  The  Land  and  Labour  Association,  the  United  Irish  League  of 
Great  Britain,  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  etc. 

4  The  United  Irish  League  consists  of  (January,  1906)  1,460  Branches 
and  77  Executives  (out  of  85  divisions  with  a  Nationalist  majority)  ; 
the  largest  figures,  it  is  said,  that  have  ever  been  seen  in  Ireland.  Each 
branch  to  be  affiliated  must  pay  a  minimum  annual  fee  of  £3.  The 
affiliation  fees  produced,  in  1905,  £3,112;  in  1904,  £2,573.  Add  to 
these  receipts  individual  subscriptions  and  contributions  from  England 
and  America,  the  figures  of  which  are  not  published.  From  October, 
1879,  to  October,  1882,  the  Treasurer  of  the  Land    League  received  a 


132        POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

the  systematic  simplicity  of  the  American  "  Machine," 
nor  has  it,  if  we  may  say  so,  its  fine  theoretical  precision. 
But  is  its  practical  working,  nevertheless,  vicious  and 
corrupt  ?  Are  the  Irish  leagues,  for  all  their  democratic 
appearance,  only  a  parody  of  representation  ?  Are  the 
"  wires  pulled,"  as  in  America,  by  a  few  all-powerful 
bosses  who  "  machine  "  the  Executives  and  the 
Conventions,  followed  and  upheld  by  a  cortege  of  clients 
whom  they  pay  with  place  and  profit,  the  spoils-system 
being  the  end  and  the  basis  of  the  organisation  ?  We 
may  say,  without  hesitation,  that  what  is  true  of  America 
is  infinitely  less  true  of  Ireland.  It  cannot  be  denied, 
indeed,  that  personalities  play  a  considerable  part  in  Irish 
politics,  that  the  popular  vote  often  carries  no  great 
weight,  and  that  the  Conventions  are  as  a  rule  prepared 
and  "  packed  "  with  care.  In  certain  respects  the  Irish 
boss  has  greater  facilities  than  his  American  parallel  for 
establishing  his  authority,  but  he  has  more  difficulty  in 
maintaining  it.  This  is  shown  by  the  recent  experience 
of  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  who  found  himself  one  fine  day 
shown  to  the  door  of  the  United  Irish  League,  of  which 
he  was  himself  the  founder.  The  conditions  in  the  two 
countries  differ  in  that  there  are  fewer  votes  to  be  gained 
in  Ireland,  notably  from  the  local  Executives,  and  in 
that  the  parliamentary  or  co-opted  element  exercises  a 
great  influence  in  the  National  Directory,  and  above  all 
in  the  Standing  Committee  of  this  Directory.  But  what 
gives  the  American  "  bosses  "  and  "  wire-pullers  "  their 
strength,  if  it  be  not  the  spoils-system  ?  Now  "  spoils  " 
do  not  exist  in  Ireland.     No  positions,  no  lucrative  offices 

sum  total  of  £244,820.  This  was  during  the  acute  land  crisis.  (Davitt, 
Fall  of  Feudalism  in  Ireland,  p.  373). 

The  constitution  of  the  National  League  was  much  simpler  than 
that  of  the  United  Irish  League.  The  National  League  consisted  of 
Branches,  County  Conventions,  and  a  Central  Council.  The  County 
Conventions  were  composed  of  delegates  from  the  Branches.  The 
Central  Council  consisted  of  48  members,  of  whom  32  were  elected  by 
the  County  Conventions,  and  16  chosen  by  the  Nationalist  parliamentary 
group. 

It  should  be  added  that  in  England,  as  in  America,  there  is  a  League 
affiliated  to  the  Nationalist  League  in  Ireland. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS:    NATIONAL  IRELAND     133 

can  be  hoped  for  or  promised  except,  perhaps,  since  1898, 
such  as  depend  upon  the  local  government  bodies,  and 
the  appropriation  of  which  by  the  Nationalists  may  well 
change  political  morals  to  some  extent.  There  are  no 
profits  or  benefits  to  be  allotted  except  such  as  the  use 
or  abuse  of  the  popular  weapon  of  boycotting  may  bring 
in  the  way  of  favours.  In  short  the  important  fact  is 
that  Irish  politics  can  nourish  only  a  small  number  of 
individuals.  The  American  "  machine  "  works  with  the 
mutual  enrichment  of  its  members  in  view  ;  in  Ireland 
the  Leagues  ask  for  money  instead  of  giving  it,  and  the 
electors,  instead  of  being  paid  by  the  organisation,  must 
pay  it.  Morality  gains  no  less  than  politics  by  this 
difference. 

Another  difference  to  be  noted  is  the  much  wider 
sphere  of  action  of  an  Irish  league  than  of  an  American 
political  organisation.  These  Leagues,  since  1826,  when 
the  Catholic  Association  organised  the  electoral  revolt 
of  the  Catholic  peasants  against  their  landlords,  have 
always,  as  their  primary  duty,  attended  to  political 
elections.  They  choose  the  candidates  and  make  certain 
of  their  election,  after  having  previously  carried  out  the 
work  of  registration  ;  they  do  the  same  to-day  for  the 
elections  for  local  boards.  But  they  are  not  satisfied, 
as  are  the  American  "  parties,"  with  this  electoral  duty, 
with  or  without  a  division  of  spoils.  Although  their 
organisation  is  rarely  spread  throughout  the  entire  country, 
although  half  of  Ulster  has  always  escaped  their  sway, 
and  although  they  have  usually  been  strongly  opposed 
by  the  more  moderate  elements  of  society,  yet  they  have 
always  striven  to  be  the  sovereign  directors  of  the 
nation's  policy,  and  have  flattered  themselves  with  the 
thought  of  being  the  arbiters  of  its  destinies.  They 
have  taken  it  upon  themselves  to  fix  the  official 
programme  of  national  claims,  to  control  the  action  of 
the  parliamentary  party,  and  to  conduct,  according  to 
their  desire,  the  struggle  against  England. 

In  the  organisation  of  agitation  is  to  be  found  the  great 


134        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

work  of  a  national  league  in  Ireland.  It  forces  on  the 
constitutional  war,  in  the  Press  and  on  the  platform, 
with  the  object  of  wresting  from  England  the  necessary 
concessions,  and  with  the  somewhat  ambitious  pretension 
of  making  government  in  Ireland  "  dangerous  and 
impossible."  For  this  purpose  a  campaign  of  popular 
meetings  is  organised  throughout  the  country  all  the  year 
round,  and  at  these  the  tyranny  of  England  is  denounced 
and  the  claims  of  Erin  asserted  in  a  series  of  flamboyant 
resolutions,  orators  and  audiences  intoxicating  themselves 
with  phrases,  raimeis,  and  illusions.  It  would  be  well 
with  Ireland  if  she  could  be  saved  by  the  eloquence  of 
words  alone  !  It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  make 
government  impossible  if  one  confines  oneself  to  the  legal 
battle,  and  that  is  precisely  why  agrarian  was  soon  added 
to  political  agitation.  But  as  it  happened  England  has 
recently  put  into  Irish  hands  a  weapon,  which,  with  their 
usual  skill  in  battle,  they  have  been  quick  to  turn  against 
her,  and  which,  peaceful  though  it  is  in  its  nature,  may, 
in  the  long  run,  turn  out  dangerous  enough.  The  new 
Local  Government  Act  has  given  over  the  District  and 
County  Councils  since  1898  to  the  Nationalists,  and 
brought  them  in  many  cases  under  the  control  of  the 
members  of  the  League.  By  gaining  the  support  of 
these  elected  bodies,  the  League  has  assured  its  position, 
and  if  it  should  one  day  be  dissolved  by  the  Government, 
it  will  be  re-discovered  in  the  local  assemblies.  Moreover, 
the  Irish  democracy  has  gained  a  foothold  in  the 
administration  of  the  country;  and  how  can  an  anti- 
National  and  foreign  government  resist  the  popular 
impact,  which,  beginning  with  the  local  bodies,  will  soon 
be  directed  against  the  "  Castle  "  itself  ? 

From  1879  onwards,  with  Parnell  and  Davitt,  the 
land  war  has  taken  first  place  in  the  agitation.  It  is  no 
longer  merely  the  Government,  but  landlordism  as  well, 
that  must  be  made  impossible  and  destroyed.  The 
Leagues  organised  a  resistance  to  evictions,  which  now 
bore  the  aspect  of  regular  sieges  or  fixed  battles.     After 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  NATIONAL  IRELAND     135 

eviction,  they  supported  the  peasants  in  money  and  in 
kind  ;       established     vigilance     committees     to     watch 
suspects,  arbitration  courts  to  judge  delinquents  ;    and 
by  a  regime  of  more  or  less  peaceful  intimidation  brought 
heavy   pressure    to     bear    on   the    landlords,    and    their 
supporters  in  the  country  districts,  the  grabbers,  and  the 
graziers.     As  is  known,  the  Land  League    attempted   in 
188 1,  too  late  and  unsuccessfully,  a  No  Rent   Campaign. 
Later  on,  under  the  National  League,  and  with  its   tacit 
approbation,  the  attempt  was  renewed,  in  a  more  skilful 
form,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Plan  of  Campaign,"  with 
happy  results,  which  were  somewhat   obscured  by  the 
disasters  of  New  Tipperary. 

The  official  and  responsible  leaders  in  this  agitation  have 
always  denounced  and  proscribed  all  criminal  acts. 
Unfortunately  the  latter  found  a  cause  of  renewal  in 
the  gravity  of  the  crisis  as  well  as  in  the  severity  of  those 
laws  which  allowed  21,000  families  to  be  evicted  in  less 
than  two  years. 5  If  there  have  been  culpable  slips  of  the 
tongue  on  the  part  of  professional  agitators,  if  even  in 
our  own  day  the  tone  of  popular  meetings  does  not  always 
exclude  a  certain  exaggeration  of  language — threats 
against  individuals,  provocations,  battle  cries  which  one 
must  be  careful  not  to  take  too  literally,  and  which  must 
be  interpreted  cum  grano  salis,  and  with  regard  to  the 
popular  environment  in  which  they  are  delivered — yet 
it  cannot  at  least  be  denied  that  the  Leagues  have  never 
failed  on  every  occasion  to  condemn  the  crimes  of 
Whiteboyism,6  and  to  declare  that  such  things  only 
served  to  dishonour  the  cause  of  Ireland  and  to  provoke 
coercion  by  making  such  coercion  legitimate.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  agrarian  crime  has  considerably  decreased 
since  1881-86.  There  are  still  cases  of  mutilation  of 
cattle,  burning  of  crops,  and  threatening  letters  ;  but 
attempts  upon  the  person  are  now  very  rare.    For  criminal 

5  Mulhall,   Dictionary  of  Statistics,  London,    1886,   p.    171. 

6  Except,  perhaps,  for  a  few  weeks  of  the  year  1881.  (See  Davitt, 
Fall  of  Feudalism  in  Ireland,  p.  330). 


136  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

violence  the  Leagues  have  substituted  a  new  method,  a 
weapon  extremly  effective  although  difficult  to  justify  on 
moral  grounds.  This  is  the  boycott,  which  has  been  very 
widely  employed  on  certain  occasions.  They  have,  as 
Mr.  William  O'Brien  said  a  short  time  ago,  succeeded 
in  replacing  in  the  Land  War  gun  shots  by  tongue 
shots.  Boycotting  of  a  more  or  less  peaceful  nature 
has  become  a  custom,  and  has  established  itself  in  the 
endemic  state.  Sometimes  everyone  in  a  district,  by 
spontaneous  accord,  cuts  off  relations  with  the  guilty 
party,  who  is  then  never  spoken  to  except  to  be  saluted 
with  a  gibe  or  an  insult.  Sometimes  meetings  of 
condemnation  are  held  in  his  neighbourhood,  to  which 
the  people  go  in  bands  with  fifes  and  drums,  and  parade, 
with  menacing  cries,  before  his  house.  A  boycotted 
grazier  can  no  longer  sell  his  beasts.  A  case  has  been 
known  where  a  grabber,  who  was  a  schoolmaster  by 
calling,  was  abandoned  forthwith  by  his  pupils  on  their 
parents'  order.  If  the  boycotted  man  owns  a  shop,  his 
customers  leave  him,  and  in  a  few  weeks  the  figures  of 
his  business  may  have  fallen  by  half.  The  extreme  case 
is  that  in  which  the  boycott  is  extended  not  only  to  the 
principal  in  the  matter,  but  to  all  his  workmen,  to  all 
who  have  business  dealings  with  him,  and  even  to  those 
who  speak  to  him.  The  object  of  attack,  whether  he 
be  a  landlord  or  a  person  of  some  other  class,  lives  in 
the  country  as  a  pariah. 

The  Leagues  have  always  boasted  that  they  have  made 
boycotting  as  legal  a  weapon  as  putting  on  the  index, 
or  as  "  exclusive  dealing  "  in  Birmingham  or  Glasgow. 
They  compare  their  action  to  that  of  the  English  Trade 
Unions,  and  claim  that  they  employ  the  same  policy  in 
defence  of  the  agrarian  proletariat  against  the  landlords, 
as  the  Trade  Unions  in  defence  of  the  workers  against 
the  patrons  or  employers.  The  Courts  of  Justice  have 
never  admitted  this  analogy,  the  first  foundation  of 
which,  namely,  corporate  responsibility,  is  lacking.  They 
punish  with  the  greatest  rigour  all  acts  of   intimidation 


THE  TWO   IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL   IRELAND     137 

or  criminal  conspiracy,  and  even  condemn  with 
unjustifiable  severity,  the  simple  facts  of  social  ostracism 
which  result  from  the  spontaneous  consensus  of  the 
community  without  recourse  to  menace  or  to  violence. 
The  law,  to  tell  the  truth,  is  often  powerless  against  a 
practice  which,  under  subtle  and  varied  forms,  belongs  to 
every  country  and  every  time.  Coercion,  as  Lord 
Salisbury  pointed  out  in  1885,  has  little  effect  ;  boycotting 
increases  despite  it,  and  at  bottom  depends  solely  upon 
the  changing  humour  of  the  people. 

Unfortunately  such  a  weapon  must  inevitably  engender 
abuses,  and  especially  wrhen  it  is  in  the  hands  of  a  political 
league.  It  provokes  many  abuses  of  a  different  kind 
in  the  English  Trade  Unions,  where,  it  is  true,  they 
attract  less  notice,  so  well  is  public  opinion  accustomed 
to  them.  In  this  connection  the  latest  of  the  Irish 
Leagues  has  lent  itself  to  criticism,  and  during  the 
agitation  of  1901  and  1902,  many  local  committees  tried 
to  exercise,  under  pretext  of  agrarian  warfaie,  a  petty 
social  and  political  tyranny.  In  the  time  of  the  National 
League,  when  abuses  appeared,  it  was  enough  for  the 
parish  priest  to  write  to  the  chiefs  of  the  League  in  Dublin 
to  have  things  put  in  order.  Under  the  new  League, 
the  control  of  the  chiefs  is  not  so  powerfully  felt  ;  and 
perhaps  the  clergy,  too,  are  no  longer  able  to  exercise  the 
same  influence  over  local  policy.  The  Branch  Committees, 
at  all  events,  were  not  always  conscious  of  their 
responsibilities.  They  imposed,  officially,  measures  of 
boycotting  in  an  interest  which  was  not  always  the 
general  interest,  and  forced  recalcitrants  to  enrol 
themselves  in  the  League  by  the  simple  method  of 
blackmail.  A  business  man  in  Tallow,  unjustly  accused 
of  grabbing,  was  ruined  on  this  pretext  by  his  rivals  in 
the  locality.  To  pass  from  the  serious  to  the  comic, 
the  story  is  told  of  an  old  woman  who  was  boycotted 
in  Sligo  for  having  been  seen  in  conversation  with 
a  policeman,  and  of  a  shopkeeper  in  Castlebar  who 
received  similar  treatment   for   having  displayed  in  his 


138         POLITICAL  AND   SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

shop     a    coloured     picture    representing    the    Siege    of 
Ladysmith. 

I  am  well  aware  that  you  cannot  conduct  an  agitation 
and,  above  all,  an  agrarian  agitation,  with  a  personnel 
of  good,  peaceable  bourgeois,  nor  with  the  sole  weapon 
of  moral  suasion.  But  this  explains  how,  even  in  Ireland, 
the  Leagues,  and  the  latest  comer  perhaps  above  all, 
— its  operations  have  been  in  certain  respects  more 
open  to  reproach  and  less  justified  by  circumstances — 
are  often  attacked  by  men  of  independent  and  moderate 
minds.  Their  narrowness,  their  intransigeant  temper, 
their  official  exclusiveness,  and  their  intrigues,  have  been 
criticised.  One  must  alwa}7s  see  the  good  with  the  bad, 
and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the}7  have  represented,  in 
a  somewhat  advanced  fashion  no  doubt,  but  without 
betraying  them,  the  general  wishes  of  the  nation.  Their 
chiefs  may  have  done  much  that  they  ought  to  have  left 
undone,  and  left  undone  much  that  they  ought  to  have 
done  ;  nevertheless  they  have  carried  the  flag  of  Ireland, 
and  to  liken  the  Leagues — as  English  opinion  fain  would 
liken  them — to  bodies  of  the  nature  of  the  Maffia  and 
the  Camorra,  is  strangely  to  misconceive  them.  They 
must  be  regarded  in  reality  as  an  expression,  sometimes 
a  little  extreme  and  wrong-headed,  but  on  the  whole 
sincere  enough,  of  the  popular  aspirations  of  Ireland. 


III. — Parliamentary  Action. 

Parliamentary  action,  the  second  of  the  weapons  of 
constitutional  Nationalism,  is,  in  the  first  place,  to  the 
Irish  people,  a  means  of  defence  or  general  protection 
against  English  oppression  ;  and,  in  the  second,  a  method 
by  which  the  fruits  of  agitation  may  be  gathered  in 
legislation. 

The  formation  in  the  British  Parliament  of  an 
organised  and  united  Nationalist  party  belongs  to 
comparatively  recent  history.      When  O'Connell  entered 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :    NATIONAL   IRELAND     139 

Parliament  in  1829  ne  nacl  only  a  handful  of  personal 
supporters,  such  as  Sheil  and  Wyse,  isolated,  and,  as 
it  were,  lost,  among  the  landlords,  who  then  occupied 
the  great  majority  of  Irish  seats.  The  corrupting  influence 
of  Whiggery  had  also  to  be  counted  with.  Young  Ireland 
had  tried  to  turn  opinion  against  Whiggery  in  the  name 
of  the  great  principle,  then  for  the  first  time  posited,  of 
the  independence  of  the  Irish  party  at  Westminster. 
Whiggery  triumphed  in  1852,  thanks  to  clerical  support, 
with  the  sorry  figures  of  Sadlier  and  Keogh  ;  and 
remained  for  twenty  years  master  of  the  Parliamentary 
field,  where  the  national  flag  was  now  only  upheld  by 
some  survivors  of  the  Repeal  Movement,  George  Henty 
Moore,  Smith  O'Brien,  and  J.  B.  Dillon,  on  their  return 
from  exile,  and  by  a  few  newcomers  like  The  O'Donoghue 
and  Sir  John  Gray.  The  turning  point  was  marked  in 
1872  by  the  celebrated  Kerry1  election  and  the  institution 
of  secret  voting.  At  the  General  Election  of  1874  the 
Nationalist  Party  was,  for  the  first  time,  under  Butt's 
leadership,  a  majority  in  the  Irish  representation  at 
Westminster  ;  it  held  60  seats  out  of  103.  Eleven 
years  later,  after  Mr.  Gladstone's  electoral  reforms,  it 
reached  the  height  of  its  power,  with  the  80  or  85  seats 
which  have  since  represented  its  normal  strength.  These 
were  the  times  of  dramatic  struggle  for  the  Irish  party 
under  Parnell.  It  seemed  as  if  the  hour  of  triumph  had 
come  when  Gladstone  rallied  to  the  flag  of  Home  Rule, 
and  the  Irish  party  became  arbiters  of  the  destinies  of 
English  parties.  Unhappily  success,  power,  unity  itself, 
disappeared  when  Parnell  disappeared.  For  ten  years  the 
sad  spectacle  was  seen  of  85  members,  their  leader  dead, 
passing  the  time  in  quarrels  amongst  themselves.  The 
anti-Parnellites  under  Mr.  Justin  MacCarthy  and  then 
under  Mr.  John  Dillon,  excommunicated  Mr.  John 
Redmond,  and  the  Parnellites  remained  faithful  to  their 

1  When  Sir  R.  Blennerhasset  was  victorious  over  Mr.  Dease,  Lord 
Kenmare's  cousin.  It  was  called  the  Clare  Home  Rule  Election  in 
allusion  to  O'Connell's  election  in  County  Clare  in  1828,  on  the  eve  of 
Catholic  Emancipation. 


140  POLITICAL   AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

leader's  memory,  while  a  third  party  was  formed  round 
Mr.  Healy.  Not  until  1900  was  unity  re-established 
(almost,  and  for  how  long  ?)  in  the  Irish  Party,  thanks 
to  the  preponderating  influence  of  the  United  Irish 
League. 

This  fact  shows  that  there  are  advantages  in  the 
interests  of  unity  in  the  system  established  by  Parnell, 
in  virtue  of  which  Irish  members  of  Parliament  are 
designated  first  by  the  League  (in  County  Conventions 
or  otherwise)  and  then  presented  by  it  to  the  popular  vote. 
Out  of  85  Nationalist  members  there  are  therefore  about 
70  or  75  soldiers  of  the  League,  bound  to  obey  it,  if  not 
commanding  in  its  name.2  Following  the  American 
practice,  the  League  exacts  a  pledge.  Those  chosen  by 
it  must  uphold  its  programme  and  accept  neither  favour 
nor  office  from  Government.  In  return,  according  to 
the  custom  in  use  in  many  countries  where  Parliamentary 
representatives  are  not  paid  (notably  in  Canada) 
members  who  have  not  means  enough  for  the  expenses 
of  Parliamentary  life,  receive  an  indemnity  from  a  special 
fund  called  "  The  Parliamentary  Fund,"  which  is  fed  by 
collections  regularly  made  in  the  country,  and  by  large 
subscriptions  from  England,  and  especial!}7  from  America. 3 
This  has  led  to  the  creation  of  a  class  of  professional 
politicians  in  Ireland.  It  has  given  rise,  also,  to  the 
bitter  and  contemptuous  attacks  directed  by  England 
against  this  "  kept  party  "  and  these  "  paid  demagogues  " 
to  which  the  Irish  answer  that  they  would  rather 
remunerate  their  representatives  than  be  represented  by 
plutocrats  who  would  defend  only  the  interests  of  their 
class,  and  that  it  is  more  honourable  for  the  electors  to 

2  They  constitute  the  official  party.  The  others  are  Independents 
opposed  to  the  League,  or  men  who,  thanks  to  personal  qualities,  pass 
muster  without  subscribing  to  it. 

3  The  Parliamentary  Fund  is  administered  by  three  Trustees,  one  a 
Catholic  Bishop,  another  the  Party  Leader.  About  one-half  of  the 
total  is  furnished  from  Ireland.  American  subscriptions  were  very 
considerable  in  Parnell's  time,  but  they  have  greatly  diminished  latterly, 
despite  missions  regularly  sent  to  re-kindle  the  zeal  of  the  Irish- 
Americans. 


THE  TWO   IRELANDS:   NATIONAL   IRELAND     141 

pay  the  elected  than  to  be  paid  by  them.  England  can 
afford  to  condemn  professional  politicians  since  she  is 
certain  of  finding  in  her  middle  classes  independent  men 
always  available  for  political  life.  But  where  is  Ireland 
to  find  unpaid  representatives  ?  In  the  Ascendancy, 
whose  interests  are  altogether  contrary  to  hers  ?  Even 
her  middle  class  is  somewhat  limited  and  not  sufficiently 
wealthy.  If  she  is  to  be  assured  of  honest  representation 
must  she  not  pay  her  politicians,  although,  perhaps,  their 
discipline  will  scarcely  be  a  complete  set-off  to  their  facile 
violence  of  speech,  or  their  lack  of  experience  and  of 
culture  ? 

This  is  not  to  say  that  they  have  been  on  the  whole 
unequal  to  their  task,  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  they 
have  held  strictly  aloof  from  all  corruption.  For  a  quarter 
of  a  century  they  have  given  proof  at  Westminster  of 
remarkable  qualities,  as  well  as  of  remarkable  failings  ; 
rarely  has  such  a  collection  of  faults  and  of  virtues  been 
found.  "  They  are,"  says  one  of  theii  political  opponents,4 
"  far  beyond  any  similar  group  of  English  members  in 
rhetorical  skill  and  quickness  of  intelligence  and  decision, 
qualities  which,  no  doubt,  belong  to  the  mechanism 
rather  than  the  soul  of  politics,  but  which  the  practical 
worker  in  public  life  will  not  despise.  But  even  when 
tried  by  a  higher  standard  the  Irish  members  need  not 
fear  the  judgment  of  history.  They  have  often,  in  my 
opinion,  misconceived  the  true  interests  of  their  country, 
but  they  have  been  faithful  to  those  interests  as  they 
understood  them,  and  proved  themselves  notably  superior 
to  sordid  personal  aims."  They  have  men  of  talent  far 
above  the  average,  such  as  Mr.  John  Redmond,  the 
leader  of  the  party,  such  as  Mr.  Dillon,  son  of  the  '48 
rebel,  or  as,  formerly,  Mr.  Sexton,  one  of  the  best  types 
of  Parliamentary  debater.  They  have  also  many  an 
enfant  terrible  who  knows  but  how  to  make  a  scene  or  a 
scandal,  and  who  by  lack  of  self-restraint  and  self-respect, 
by  his  intemperance  of  language,  discredits  his  country 

4  Plunkett,  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.    91. 


142  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

and  alienates  English  opinion.  It  is  in  truth  a 
heterogeneous  party,  including  in  its  ranks  Catholics  and 
protestants;  landlords  and  sons  of  peasants;  brilliant 
lawyers  like  Mr.  Healy  ;  journalists  like  the  late  Mr. 
Gray  of  the  Freeman,  like  Mr.  Justin  MacCarthy,  who 
was  also  a  historian  and  a  dramatist,  or  like  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor  of  to-day.  The  party  had  a  poet,  also,  Mr. 
T.  D.  Sullivan,  the  author  of  so  many  popular  ballads, 
the  most  celebrated  of  which,  "  God  Save  Ireland,"  was 
sung  in  the  writer's  ears  in  the  Dublin  streets,  the  day 
after  it  had  appeared  in  the  Nation.  It  has  included  a 
former  Prime  Minister  of  Canada,  the  Hon.  Edward  Blake. 
A  few  years  ago  it  had  two  ex-Fenians,  Mr.  Davitt  and 
Mr.  J.  F.  X.  O'Brien,  who  are  both  now  dead,  not  to 
speak  of  a  number  of  political  ex-prisoners.  Eccentric 
and  original  types  have  not  been  lacking,  from  the 
O'Gorman  Mahon  and  Biggar,  the  pork  merchant,  to  that 
descendant  of  Swift,  Mr.  Swift  MacNeill,  ''who  indeed," 
wrote  an  Englishman  a  short  while  ago,  "  typifies  the 
party  to  which  he  belongs.  Now  it  is  wild  and  un- 
managable,  now  it  is  bitterly  belligerent,  now  it  is 
recklessly  rowdy.  But  in  Parliamentary  methods  and 
precedents  it  is  always  acutely  informed,  industrious  and 
hardworking,  and  in  private  life,  gay,  merrymaking.  .  ."5 
What  they  lack  least  is  eloquence,  a  facile  and  brilliant 
eloquence,  though  sometimes  verbose  and  spoiled  by  bad 
taste,  and  they  expend  it  freely.  But  they  plead  the 
Irish  cause  in  the  House  of  Commons  in  a  tone  relatively 
pale  and  moderate  compared  to  that  which  they  employ 
before  an  Irish  crowd,  or  to  the  semi-revolutionaty 
speeches  which  they  reserve  for  America.  They  are  past 
masters  of  Parliamentary  practice,  and  were  among  the 
first  to  make  the  best  use  of  the  "  questions  "  put  to 
Ministers  at  the  opening  of  the  sittings — a  convenient 
method  of  unveiling  local  abuses  and  of  making  the 
small  official  who  is  irresponsible  at  law  feel  that  he  is 
responsible  in  fact.      The  House,  unfortunately,  has  not 

5  Daily  News,  28th  August,  1901. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  NATIONAL  IRELAND     143 

the  time  to  occupy  itself  seriously  with  the  Sister  Isle, 
and  with  difficulty  devotes  three  or  four  days  a  year  to 
the  Irish  Budget.  Great  speeches  and  fiery  declamation 
are  received  with  shrugs,  or  in  impatient  silence,  if  not 
by  precipitate  departures.  Then  the  Irish,  half  out  of 
anger,  and  half  out  of  calculation,  proceed  to  avenge 
their  powerlessness  by  violence  and  obstruction. 

Irish  obstruction  at  Westminster  had  its  day  of  fame 
when  Parnell,  taking  the  weapon  from  the  rough  hands 
of  Biggar,  and  turning  to  profit  the  deficiencies  of  the 
old  rules  of  the  House,  showed  such  skill  in  covering  the 
order-paper  with  motions,  prolonging  speeches  and  sittings, 
wearying  the  patience  and  killing  the  time  of  Parliament 
that  for  a  moment  he  paralysed  the  constitutional  life  of 
the  country.  His  object  was  to  make  the  work  of 
Parliament  impossible,  as  the  object  of  the  League  in 
Ireland  was  to  make  Government  impossible.  England 
had  destroyed  the  Irish  Parliament.  Well,  Ireland  would 
destroy  the  English  Parliament  !  She  prevented  Ireland 
from  conducting  her  affairs,  Ireland  would  return  the 
compliment.  The  game,  however,  could  last  only  for  a 
time.  As  soon  as  Parliament  had  amended  its  procedure, 
and  strengthened  the  powers  of  the  Speaker  and  the 
Chairmen,  it  disappeared,  to  be  replaced  by  practices  of 
violence,  and  by  "  scenes  "  sometimes  justified,  though 
often  unjustifiable,  the  object  of  which  was  simply  to 
degrade  an  assembly  that  could  not  be  mastered. 
Members  were  expelled  by  the  police  ;  refused  en  masse 
to  vote  6  ;  insulted  Ministers  ;  spued  out  their  hatred  into 
the  face  of  England.  During  the  South  African  war  it 
was  a  savoury  pleasure  to  the  Nationalists  to  applaud 
English  disasters,  and  to  shout  "  Hurrah  for  the  Boers  !  " 
as  they  had  formerly  shouted  "  Hurrah  for  the  Mahdi  !  " 
Vengeance  is  sweet  to  the  conquered  ;  and  something 
had  to  be  done  to  strike  the  imagination  of  the  electors, 
and  stimulate  the  generosity  of  the  Irish-Americans. 

6  Voting  was  till    recently  obligatory  for  the  members  present  at  a 
sitting. 


144  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

All  this  violence  and  provocation  exasperate  the  English, 
although  they,  on  their  side,  do  all  that  could  be  done 
to  let  loose  the  explosion.     What  irritates  them  most  of 
all  is  the  element  of  trouble  introduced  into  their  Parlia- 
mentary life,  even  in  normal  times,  and  apart  altogether 
from  obstruction,  by  the   existence  at  Westminster  of  a 
united  and  independent  parliamentary  group  of  75  to  80 
members,  who  are  free  from  all  alliances  with    English 
parties,    and    personally    insensible    to   the    favours    of 
Government,  and  who  proclaim  loudly  that  they  are  there 
only  under  constraint  of  an  Act  of  Union  the  validity  of 
which  they  deny.      "  We  are  in  Parliament,"    say    the 
Irish  Members,  "  we  aie  not  of  it."      Faced  by  a  strong 
Government  with  a  large  majority  behind  it,  such  a  group 
cannot  do  much  harm.     When,  on  the  other  hand,   Whigs 
and  Tories  are  divided  in  almost  equal  numbers,  it  becomes 
the  arbiter  of  the  situation,  throwing  its  vote  at  pleasure 
now  to  the  one  side  of  the  scale,  now  to  the  other.      This 
is  Parnell's  ideal  condition  ;   when  it  exists,  Ireland  must 
be  close-fisted,  and  cautiously  weigh  the  concessions  and 
the  sincerity  of  each  party.      Thus  in  1885-86    Parnell 
created  a  Conservative  Government,  only  to  overthrow 
it   six   months   afterwards,    swearing,    a   little   too    late, 
that  he  would  never  again  trust  the  fine  promises   of    a 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill  and  a  Lord   Carnarvon.      The 
Tories,  when  they  are  sincere,  have,  from  the  Irish   point 
of   view,    the   advantage   of   controlling   the   Lords    and 
being  able  to  make  them  pass  a  measure  which,     if  it 
came  from  the  Liberals,  would  be  rejected.    The  Liberals, 
on  the  other  hand,  have,  in  the  majority,  accepted  the 
Home  Rule  principle,  and  hence  it  was  that  the    Irish 
party  kept  them  in  power  from  1892  to  1895,  and     still 
actually  supports  them,  though  ready  to  make  war  on 
them,  should  they  betray  their  promises. 

If  these  concessions  and  combinations  only  affected 
Irish  interests,  the  English  might  overlook  the  unpleasant- 
ness of  the  situation,  although  in  practice  it  brings  little 
honour  to  either  of  their  great  parties.     But  what  when 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  NATIONAL  IRELAND     145 

they  are  exercised  on  purely  British  affairs  ?  Irish 
intervention  in  British  politics  has  always  had  a 
democratic  influence.  In  Lecky's  words  :  "  The  majority 
of  Irish  Members  turned  the  balance  in  favour  of  the  great 
democratic  reform  of  1832,  and  from  that  day  there  has 
been  scarcely  any  democratic  measure  which  they  have 

not  powerfully  assisted It  is  probably  not    too 

much  to  say  that  their  presence  in  the  British  Parliament 
has  proved  the  most  powerful  of  all  agents  in  accelerating 
the  democratic  transformation  of  our  English  politics."  7 
The  Irish  are  always  proud  to  remember  that  they  resisted 
the  annexation  of  the  Transvaal  in  1877,  that  they 
abolished  flogging  in  the  army,  and  that  they  constituted, 
under  the  Tory  Government  of  1895  to  1905,  the  only 
serious  and  steady  opposition  to  the  Imperialist  majority. 
Nevertheless,  their  intervention  and  influence,  has,  in  the 
nature  of  things,  done  much  to  hurt  British  politics.  It 
is  the  sad  result  of  a  false  situation  that  they  have  done 
more  harm  to  England  than  good  to  Ireland.  They  have 
introduced  into  political  morals  a  system  of  compromise 
and  of  bargain.  By  their  example  they  have  provoked, 
in  the  heart  of  Parliament,  the  formation  of  coalitions 
of  interest,  and  of  groups  formed  after  their  image,  the 
existence  of  which  is  a  serious  menace  to  parliamentary 
institutions.8  In  short,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
English  are  galled  at  the  sight  of  the  Irish,  when  the 
balance  of  parties  allows  it,  erecting  themselves  into  the 
arbiters  of  situations  which  exclusively  concern  Britain  ; 
at  the  spectacle  of  their  Parliament  sometimes  led  and 
governed  by  a  party  which  strives  only  to  dishonour  it, 
and  loses  no  opportunity  of  proclaiming  its  hatred  of 
England. 

Here,  we  think,  is  to  be  sought  the  profound  cause  of 
English  hostility  towards  the  Irish  Party  in   Parliament. 

7  England  in  the  18th  Century,  viii.,  483. 

s  The  fact  is  stated  by  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell  in  Ireland  and  the  Empire, 
London,  1901,  p.  243,  244.  Twenty  years  ago  railway  groups,  marine 
merchant  groups,  beer  groups,  etc.,  were  unknown. 

L 


146  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

England  forced  the  Union  upon  Ireland,  and  now  she 
herself  is  suffering  the  consequences.  One  remedy  offers 
itself,  outside  of  the  entire  suppression  of  Irish  representa- 
tion at  Westminster,  the  reduction  of  its  members  by  a 
Redistribution  Bill.  Proposed  by  Lord  Salisbury  in 
1884,  the  measure  has  since  remained  on  the  programme 
of  the  Conservative  Party,  and  indeed  constitutes  that 
Party's  sole  solution  of  the  Irish  difficulty.  England,  it 
is  said,  has  one  member  for  every  67,527  inhabitants  ; 
Scotland  one  for  every  62,112  ;  Ireland  one  for  every 
43,289.  The  injustice  is  apparent.  The  strength  of  the 
Irish  representation  must  be  reduced  in  proportion  to  the 
population  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  70  or  75  members  instead 
of  103.  Doubtless  the  Treaty  of  Union  fixed  once  for 
all  the  number  of  Irish  seats  in  Parliament  ;  9  but  the 
objection  is  valueless  since  the  pact  has  been  violated 
already  by  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church  in 
1869.  Let  us  admit  the  thesis,  is  the  answer.  But  what 
right  have  the  Unionists  to  put  forward  the  decline  of 
Irish  population  as  a  reason  for  reducing  Irish  representa- 
tion ?  At  the  time  in  the  last  century  when  the  Irish 
population  had  doubled,  they  refused  to  consider  the 
question  of  increasing  that  representation.  And  even  if 
it  were  reduced  to  50  or  60  members,  does  anyone  think 
that  the  Nationalist  Party  will  find  much  more  difficulty 
in  fettering  the  Parliamentary  machine,  or  that  the 
English  parties  will  no  longer  be  tempted  to  pay  court 
to  it  ? 


IV. — Nationalist  Policy. 

English  opinion  is  severe — unjustly  severe — on  the 
politicians  of  Ireland,  on  these  "  professional  agitators  " 
who,  they  say,  do  not  represent  their  country  but  betray 
it,  who  seek  not  for  reforms  but  for   useful   grievances, 

9  The  Act  of  Union  fixed  the  number  at  ioo.  The  Act  of  1832  added 
five  seats,  but  two  boroughs  were  disfranchised 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS  :  NATIONAL  IRELAND     147 

who  trade  upon  the  ignorance  and  misery  of  the  excitable 
masses,  and  exploit  their  passions  with  impunity.  The 
impartial  observer  must  refuse  to  accept  this  extravagant 
and  self-interested  judgment,  and  must  observe  that 
despite  their  faults  and  theii  failings,  their  intolerant 
orthodoxy,  their  hateful  dissensions,  their  excesses  and 
insufficiencies — and  Ireland  takes  note  of  all  these  things — 
they  have  behind  them  and  with  them  the  great  body 
of  the  people.  Whether  they  are  or  are  not  "  gentlemen  " 
of  the  British  type,  whether  they  are  or  are  not  professional 
politicians,  living  on  their  profession,  is  all  beside  the 
real  question.  The  question  is,  what  sort  of  politics 
have  they  given  to  Ireland  in  the  twenty-five  years  during 
which  they  have  controlled  her  public  life  ? 

We  must  recognise  at  the  outset  the  exceptional  and, 
indeed,  unique  difficulty  of  the  situation,  the  isolation 
and  weakness  of  Irish  Nationalism.  On  one  side  they 
are  faced  with  the  all-powerful  Celtophobia  of  England, 
on  the  other  with  a  "  Garrison  "  clinging  desperately  to 
its  privileges.  Ulster  lies  in  the  abyss  of  fanaticism  ; 
to  their  right  are  the  renegades  preaching  their  gospel  of 
desertion,  on  their  left  the  convinced  Separatists  boasting 
of  the  futility  of  the  constitutional  battle.  The  leaders, 
it  must  be  recognised,  have  in  this  situation  firmly 
upheld  the  principles,  the  rights,  and  the  flag  of  Ireland, 
and  have  never  lowered  their  policy  to  the  final 
humiliation,  nor  accepted  servitude.  This  is,  after  all, 
no  empty  record. 

They  have  been  without  fear.  Have  they  been  without 
reproach  ?  Consider  what  they  are  :  the  representatives 
of  a  democracy  that  is  in  its  birth  throes,  and  not  yet 
socially  formed  or  developed  ;  like  it,  they  are,  being 
Irishmen,  excitable  and  passionate  ;  and  they  are,  like 
it,  more  often  than  not,  deficient  in  that  higher  culture 
which  carries  with  it  sound  judgment  and  a  philosophical 
view  of  things.  Hence  their  inclination  to  let  the  spirit 
of  hatred  and  vengeance  get  the  better  of  the  practical 
and  business  spirit  in  the  conduct  of  affairs.     They  make 


i48  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

it  a  point  of  honour  to  irritate  English  Celtophobia  instead 
of  striving  to  soften  it,  and  at  times  it  would  even  seem 
as  though  their  whole  policy  were  based  on  and  were 
exhausting  itself  in  vain  demonstrations  of  anti-British 
feeling.  Hatred  is  not  only  wrong  in  itself,  but  it  is 
sterile.  It  is  a  policy  that  may  be  left  to  the  extremists. 
Whoever  accepts  a  seat  in  Parliament  should  have  a 
Parliamentary  policy.  Those  who  are  oath-bound  to  the 
constitution  would  better  safeguard  their  dignity  and 
serve  the  interests  of  their  country  by  an  attitude  of 
cold  reserve. 

This  offensive  ferocity  always  characterises  their 
relations  with  the  Government.  They  miss  opportunities 
of  rapprochment  i  ;  when  the  battle  is  fought  they 
cannot  answer  conciliation  by  conciliation.  Parnell  gave 
the  example  in  1881  when  he  opposed  Gladstone's  great 
Land  Bill.  Is  it  not  better  politics  to  accept,  when  one 
can  do  so  without  loss  of  principle,  every  conciliatory 
measure,  even  though  it  is  inadequate  ?  Intransigeance 
is  but  a  lazy  sophism,  which  dispenses  public  men  from 
reflection  and  responsibility.  They  have  forgotten 
somewhat  that  perfection  is  not  to  be  found  here  below, 
and  that  the  real  world  is  made  up  of  compromises  and 
half-satisfactions.  Their  politics  lack  realism.  Carried 
away  by  the  ardour  of  battle,  and  under  the  incessant 
provocation  of  English  Celtophobia  and  Irish  wretchedness, 
they  are  guided  in  their  politics  by  passion  lather  than 
by  interest.  And  yet,  when  all  is  said,  can  we  expect 
from  these  Irishmen  the  calm  mastery  and  the  philo- 
sophical detachment  of  a  Bryce  or  a  Morley  ? 

The  gravest  feature  of  the  situation,  however,  is  that 
they  have,  seen  the  Irish  question  as  one  merely  of  politics, 
and  that  politics  means  for  them  only  agitation  and  Home 
Rule.      They  seem  to  have  scarcely  any  conception  of 

1  Mr.  William  O  Brien,  in  1902,  with  Mr.  Redmond,  initiated  the 
movement  of  conciliation  which,  through  the  Land  Conference,  resulted 
in  the  Land  Act  of  1903.  He  has  since  continued,  alone  and  outside 
the  ranks  of  the  official  party,  to  preach  conciliation  in  answer  to 
conciliation. 


THE  TWO  IRELANDS:  NATIONAL  IRELAND     149 

the  complexity  of  social  life.  They  have  neglected  the 
intellectual,  moral  and  economic  progress  of  the  country, 
and  the  education  of  the  democracy.  In  their  eyes 
England  is  responsible  for  every  evil.  It  is  from  England 
that  every  reform  must  come,  and  in  Irish  autonomy 
alone  lies  salvation.  Under  Home  Rule  everything  will 
prosper,  without  it  nothing  can  prosper  !  Perish  Ireland 
so  long  as  the  principle  of  Home  Rule  survives  !  And 
the}'  do  not  refrain  from  promising  this  Home  Rule  to 
the  country  in  the  near  future,  next  year — who  knows  ? — 

or,  perhaps,  even  to-morrow or  from  boasting 

of  their  oratorical  successes,  and  all  in  an  exaggerated 
fashion  of  speech  that  ill  conceals  the  inadequacy  of  the 
results  obtained.  Thus  they  natter  the  country  by 
tempting  it  into  premature  hopes,  and  into  the  apathy 
of  a  vain  expectation.  As  for  themselves,  they  flutter 
in  the  void,  and  allow  themselves  to  be  absorbed  by  this 
sterile  if  not  destructive  agitation.  Agitation  is  a  necessary 
evil,  since  England  has  never  yielded  except  to  force, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  an  evil  ;  and  they  have  not  repaired 
it  by  an  attempt  at  reconstruction.  Whenever  fruitful 
initiative  has  arisen  near  them  they  have  shown  themselves 
jealous  of  it  or  have  set  it  aside.  To  work  for  the 
economic  uplifting  of  Ireland  is  to  menace  the  cause  of 
Home  Rule.2  To  organise  agricultural  co-operation  is 
useless,  and  even  harmful,  until  the  Land  Question  has 
been  settled. 3  They  have  made  no  effort  to  rally  Ulster 
or  the  oligarchy  to  the  cause  of  Home  Rule.  Absorbed 
in  the  Parliamentary  struggle,  they  have  not  understood 
that  effort  from  within  can  and  should  favour  and 
forward,  outside  politics,  a  national  regeneration  which 
Parliament  itself  is  incapable  of  assuring  to  the  country. 
In  short  they  have  reduced  Nationalism,  as  the  "  Colony" 
for  their  part  have  reduced  Unionism,  to  a  negative  rather 

2  In  1895  Mr.  MacCarthy,  the  anti-Parnellite  leader,    refused  to  take 
part  in  the  Recess  Committee  organised  by  Sir  Horace  Plunkett. 

3  The  usual  argument  of  the     Nationalists  against  the    agricultural 
societies  founded  by  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society. 


150  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

than  a  positive  policy.  Their  ideas  and  achievements 
have  been  those  of  politicians  rather  than  of  statesmen. 
Ill-prepared  by  education  for  an  extraordinarily  difficult 
task,  and  badly  supported  by  a  changeable  and 
inexperienced  public  opinion,  they  have  rarely  risen  to 
high  or  long  views.  Condemned  to  perpetual  opposition, 
they  have  never  been  moulded  by  the  exercise  of  power, 
experience  of  affairs,  or  the  burden  of  responsibility. 
In  Parliament  they  are  never  consulted  ;  and  in  Ireland 
even,  until  quite  lately,  they  were  but  little  checked  or 
criticised.  At  the  present  time  a  change  is  coming  over 
the  Irish  spirit  ;  there  is  an  awakening  of  public  opinion. 
In  England  a  wave  of  Liberalism  is  arising  which 
disposes  her  towards  concessions.  The  new  era  makes  it 
necessary  that  this  negative  policy  should  become  positive, 
should  grow  to  maturity,  and  become  at  once  more 
responsible  and  more  realistic.  Otherwise  the  ineffective- 
ness of  Constitutional  Nationalism  may  well  one  day 
provoke,  if  indeed  it  has  not  already  begun  to  provoke, 
a  recrudescence  of  the  extremist  and  separatist  party. 


CHAPTER  III.— THE  NATIONAL  AND 
ANTI-ENGLISH   SPIRIT 

Between  the  two  Irelands,  between  the  conquerors 
and  the  conquered,  the  Anglo-Saxon  colony  and  the 
Irish  democracy,  there  is  not,  as  might  be  thought,  an 
indestructible  stone-wall,  an  impenetrable  and  water-tight 
partition  which  cuts  off  all  relations  between  them.  There 
are  no  hostilities  so  violent,  but  they  must  be  mildened 
here  and  there  by  many  centuries  of  life  in  common  ; 
personal  sympathies  develop  between  those  who  are 
separated  by  religion  or  interest.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
in  Ulster  the  two  castes,  owing  to  their  numerical  equality, 
still  live  deeply  divided  lives.  Moreover,  the  political 
downfall  of  the  Ascendancy  and  the  accession  to  power 
of  National  Ireland  have  inevitably  left  some  rancour  in 
the  heart  of  the  "  Anglican  "  garrison.  Still  it  is  not 
rare  to  find  Unionists  given  seats  on  the  District  and 
County  Councils  by  Nationalist  electors,  or  to  find  the 
names  of  Protestants  on  subscription  lists  for  the  erection 
of  Catholic  churches.  Even  as  between  landlords  and 
tenants  there  are  many  current  anecdotes  which  show 
that  relations  are  not  always  those  of  enemies  under 
arms. 

The  facts  can  be  better  understood  when  it  is  realised 
that  the  psychological  differences  between  individuals  of 
the  one  class  and  the  other  are  much  less  than  the  surface 
of  things  might  suggest.  Whether  they  wished  it  or  not, 
Ireland  has  made  them  all  her  own.  She  has  set  her 
mark  on  every  Irishman,  be  he  Protestant  or  Catholic, 
Nationalist  or  Unionist,  willing  or  unwilling.  The 
students    of   Trinity    College   who    demonstrate    in   the 


152  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

streets  of  Dublin,  the  Orangemen  who  fight  with  the 
Belfast  police,  have  no  cause  either  to  envy  or  to  reproach 
the  peasantry  of  the  West,  who  light  candles  in  their 
windows  to  welcome  their  member  on  his  release  from 
prison.  Climate,  surroundings,  circumstances,  all  these 
forces  unite  in  bringing  together  what  ethnic  differences 
seemed  to  have  finally  divided.  They  have,  with  the 
help  of  the  old  Celtic  blood,  contributed  to  form  a  national 
character,  which  is  essentially  different  from  that  of  the 
Sister  Isle.  Although  England's  racial  origins  are  not 
very  dissimilar,  no  two  human  types  are,  at  the  present 
day,  more  opposed,  psychologically  speaking,  than  the 
Englishman  and  the  Irishman,  and  this  despite  all  that 
England  has  received  from  Celtic  sources,  and  all  that 
Ireland,  in  the  course  of  her  Anglicisât  ion,  has  borrowed 
from  British  civilisation. 

The  character  of  a  people  is  essentially  a  composite 
product.  Race,  climate,  milieu,  history,  all  have  their 
share  in  shaping  it.  There  is  not  to  be  found  anywhere 
in  the  world  a  race  of  absolutely  pure  blood,  any  more 
than  there  is  to  be  found  a  nation  consisting  of  a  single 
race.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  people  so  disinherited 
of  their  first  nature,  or  so  humiliated  by  life,  that  they 
do  not  respond  to  certain  ethnic  traits  and  tendencies. 
This  is  nowhere  seen  more  clearly  than  in  Ireland,  and 
yet  nowhere  have  there  been  so  many  false  and  exaggerated 
theories  on  the  subject.  The  English  Celtophobes, 
following  the  example  of  Mommsen,  impute  all  the  vices 
and  troubles  of  Ireland  to  the  Celtic  race.  Yet,  did  not 
Sir  John  Davies,  so  early  even  as  the  seventeenth  century, 
compute  that  the  number  of  the  descendants  of  the 
Saxons  in  Ireland  exceeded  that  of  the  descendants  of 
the  Gaels  ?  And  there  was  very  little  homogeneity  in 
the  Gaelic  race  itself,  which  contained  a  large  admixture 
of  the  former  inhabitants  of  Ireland,  just  as  the  newcomers 
merged  at  once  in  it.  On  the  other  hand,  an  English 
writer  of  talent,  Mr.  J.  M.  Robertson,  M.P.,  denies  that 
race  has  any  share  whatsoever  in  the  development  of 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    153 

national  character.  He  has  written  a  book  l  to  combat 
the  anti-Celtic  prejudice  that  explains  everything  by  race. 
The  political  history  of  Ireland  would  have  been  the 
same,  he  says,  given  the  same  conditions,  with  any  other 
race  as  it  has  been  with  the  Irish  race.  This  makes  it 
difficult  to  explain  how  we  find  in  the  Irish  character  of 
to-day  so  many  traits  which  belonged  to  the  Gaels  in  the 
sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  traits  that  were  acquired, 
definite,  and  independent  of  the  moment,  such,  if  you 
will,  as  great  power  of  imagination  and  of  sentiment,  or 
religious  ardour.  These  characteristics  were  so  deeply 
graved  on  the  Irish  mind  that  their  traces  are  to  be 
recognised  in  it  from  the  most  primitive  times,  and 
persist  to  our  own  day,  despite  all  the  modifications  and 
developments  of  subsequent  history.  Surely  it  is  as 
great  an  exaggeration  to  deny  all  racial  influence  on  the 
psychology  of  a  people  as  to  attribute  everything  to  it. 
The  truth  is  that  in  the  analysis  of  national  character 
we  must  take  into  consideration  every  fact,  ethnic, 
historical  and  social.  In  practice,  however,  it  must  be 
recognised  as  impossible  to  determine  scientifically  the 
actual  influence  of  any  one  of  these  forces.  Nothing  is 
more  complex,  it  may  be  said  at  once,  than  the  Irish 
national  character,  just  because  it  is  the  outcome  of  so 
many  varied  forces.  Physically,  there  is  no  dominant 
type  that  one  can  seize  upon.  The  Irishman  is  tall  as  a 
rule,  taller  than  the  Englishman  ;  the  largeness  of  the 
jaw,  the  protuberant  cheek-bones,  signs  supposed  to  be 
characteristic,  cannot  be  said  to  be  of  frequent  occurrence. 
Fair  hair  is  quite  as  common  as  dark  ;  black  eyes  as  blue. 
Many  of  the  faces  one  sees  are  rough,  coarse,  and  vulgar  in 
expression,  bearing  the  marks  of  slavery  and  idleness  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  many  peasants  and  people  of  the 
middle  class,  also,  who  have  behind  them  some 
generations  of  culture,  manifest  a  delicacy  and  spirituality 
of  expression  which  is  quite  remarkable  and  to  which 
English  beauty  does  not  often  attain.      Psychologically, 

1  The  Saxon  and  the  Celt,  London,  1897,  p.  157. 


154  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

the  variety  is  not  less.  Here  then  we  may  content 
ourselves  with  indicating  some  general  traits  of  a  national 
character  which  are  modified  in  practice  by  a  thousand 
causes,  class,  religion,  occupation,  not  to  speak  of  the 
great  modern  fact  of  Anglicisation. 


I. — The  Individual. 

What  strikes  one  from  the  first,  in  the  intellectual 
domain,  is  the  facility  and  swiftness  of  the  Irish  mind. 
This  characteristic  would  not  seem  to  be  specifically 
"  Celtic,"  for  we  find  it  neither  in  the  Bretons  nor  in  the 
Welsh.  In  any  case,  however,  it  is  a  quality  directly  in 
contrast  to  the  slow-mindedness  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  The 
Englishman,  it  is  said,  has  just  grasped  an  idea  when 
the  Irishman  has  passed  on  to  the  next.  The  "  Saxon  " 
will  painfully  connect  two  arguments  ;  the  Irish  "  Celt  " 
holds  them  both  in  his  mind,  as  it  were,  upon  the  same 
line.  His  rapidity  of  perception  and  repartee  is  equalled 
and  aided  by  a  swift  memory.  In  England  an  audience 
follows  an  orator  from  afar  ;  here  it  is  ahead  of  him, 
guesses  his  thought  in  advance,  and  notes  every  lightest 
"  hit  "  with  instantaneous  laughter  and  shoutings.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  intellectual  agility  rushes  the  Irishman 
to  extremes  and  prevents  him  from  appreciating  the 
golden  mean.  He  leaps  at  one  bound  the  whole  width 
of  an  idea  ;  he  exaggerates  it,  and  then  changes  his 
mind  ;  he  is  mobile  and  extravagant.  Still  swiftness  of 
mind  connotes  not  only  accessibility  to  ideas  and 
adaptability,  but  imaginative  power,  and  even  in 
eminent  cases,  that  supreme  gift  which  is  greater  than 
imagination,  that  insight  or  intuition  which  is  the  gift 
of  poets  and  of  thinkers.  The  poetic  richness  of  the 
Irish  in  former  times  is  well  known.  Naturally  vigorous, 
positive  and  clear,  like  the  French,  though,  perhaps, 
less  methodical,  in  so  far  as  it  has  been  less  moulded  by 
Latin  influence,   the    Irish  mind   is  especially  adapted, 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    155 

says  a  critic,2   "  for  the  speculative   in  philosophy    and 
the  abstract  in  science." 

If  the  harshness  of  cii  cumstance  has  prevented  it  from 
developing  to  its  full  stature,  it  possesses  at  least  one 
incontestable  talent,  that  of  oratory  and  literature.  "  The 
Irish  orator  or  writer  is  fluent,  musical  and  graphic  ;  he 
engages  the  eye,  he  delights  the  ear  and  strikes  the 
imagination  at  least  as  much  as  he  takes  possession  of  the 
intelligence.  Hence  the  music  of  his  periods,  the  vitality 
of  his  illustrations,  the  brightness  of  atmosphere,  the  high 
spirits,  and  personality  expressed  in  every  turn."  3 
Whether  he  be  a  writer  or  not  by  profession,  the  Irishman 
spontaneously  puts  all  his  individuality  into  his  style  ; 
he  has  the  taste  for  expression,  for  colour,  for  that  thing 
which  is  so  rare  in  English,  the  period  ;  he  is  a  perfect 
master  of  the  language  that  has  been  forced  upon  him, 
and  uses  it  with  an  art  and  a  brilliancy  which  are 
altogether  French. 

In  the  order  of  emotion  there  is  the  same  susceptibility, 
the  same  impressionability  of  the  psychological 
instrument.  Sentiment,  spirituality,  mysticism — that 
general  characteristic  of  the  Celt — appears  in  the 
productions  of  primitive  Ireland,  not  only  in  the  songs 
and  the  marvellous  art-work  of  the  first  Christian  ages, 
but  in  the  epics  or  Sagas  of  the  pagan  period,  in  which 
tenderness  and  idealism  are  strangely  allied  to  the  rude 
realism  of  the  time.  These  Celtic  qualities  of  heart  are 
to  be  found  equally  in  the  Irish  "  Celts  "  of  to-day.  They 
are  pious  with  a  piety  delicate,  childlike,  and  they  have 
not  their  like  in  Europe  for  purity  of  morals,  and  domestic 
virtue.  Love  of  country  is  rooted  profoundly  in  their 
hearts,  an  unhappy  virtue  for  those  who  are  predestined 
to  be  emigrants.  "  I  have  earned  big  money  in  America 
and  Australia,  but  I  only  existed  in  these  countries,  while 
I  lived  every  hour  of  my  life  in  Ireland,"  said  a  returned 

2  Mrs.  Sophie  Bryant,  The  Celtic  Mind  (Contemporary  Review,  1897, 
p.  533,  et  seq.),  an  article  full  of  ideas  and  of  profound  insight,  from 
which  we  have  adopted  many  suggestions. 

3  lb.  p.  543. 


156  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

emigrant.  The  less  the  Irish  mind  has  been  tainted  by 
Anglicisation  the  more  delicate  is  its  emotional  life  ;  the 
egotism  of  the  Anglicised  peasant  of  the  East  is  all  but 
unknown  in  the  West.  "  You  get  nothing  out  of  an 
Irishman  by  taking  him  brusquely,"  writes  a  traveller 
very  justly,   "  and  you  can  get  anything  by  taking  him 

gently A  mere  nothing  repels  him,  and  a  mere 

nothing  electrifies  him."  4 

It  is  one  of  the  great  mistakes  made  by  the  English 
that  they  have  always  rubbed  the  conquered  people  the 
wrong  way  by  their  sour  and  imperious  manners.  It  is 
well  that  the  Irish  have  the  power  to  despise  and  banish 
reality  when  it  is  hard  and  sad,  and  are  able  to  fall  back 
upon  that  inner  life  which  is  truer  for  them  than  the  other, 
to  forget  themselves  in  dreams,  in  memories  of  the  past, 
in  visions  of  the  Beyond.  In  every  peasant  of  Kerry 
and  of  Connaught,  there  is  a  poet  who  sings — or  at  least 
listens  to  the  song  of  traditional  voices — of  the  beauty  of 
nature,  of  the  glory  of  the  love  of  God,  of  the  fairy 
chimeras,  the  Sidhe,S  of  supernatural  beings.  People 
came  to  Arran  from  afar  to  hear  Bryan  Gilmartin  or 
Coleman  Costello  recite  the  old  poems.  At  the  other 
end  of  society,  there  is  a  group  of  idealistic  poets,  Lionel 
Johnson,  G.  W.  Russell  (A.E.),  W.  B.  Yeats,  and  others, 
who  seek  inspiration  in  symbolical  mysticism  or  in 
dreams  of  the  invisible  world. 

But  withal  there  is  no  obstinate  sadness,  no  invincible 
timidity.  Those  famous  traits  of  the  Celtic  race,  as 
Renan  has  seen  it,  do  not  make  themselves  manifest  ; 
we  do  not  encounter  men  "  with  all  the  faults  and  all 
the  qualities  of  the  solitary  man,  who  is  at  the  same  time 
proud  and  timid,  awkward  in  manner  ....  and  ignorant 
of  that  singular  forgetfulness  of  human  conditions  and 
destinies  which  is  called  gaiety."  6      Has  the  Irish  soul 

4  Daryl,  Les  Anglais  en  Irlande,  Paris,  1888,  p.  109. 

5  The  belief  in  spirits,  fairies,  visitors  from  the  other  world,  is  still 
very  prevalent  in  the  West  of  Ireland. 

b  La  Poésie  des  Races  Celtiques  (Essais  de  Morale  et  de  Critique), 
Paris,  1859,  p.  381,  383. 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    157 

ever  been  of  this  kind  ?  Present-day  Ireland,  doubtless, 
is  no  longer  the  Ireland  which  existed  before  the  Great 
Famine,  gay  and  careless,  brilliant  and  reckless,  with  a 
touch  of  Bohemianism,  devoted  to  the  duel,  to  feasts  and 
to  righting — the  Ireland  painted  by  Miss  Edgeworth  and 
Charles  Lever.  But  is  she  any  nearer  to  the  concentrated 
melancholy  of  the  "  pays  d'Armor."  Light  and  fantastic, 
she  retains,  after  many  a  drama  and  disaster,  as  much 
vivacity  of  character  as  of  mind.  She  has  unfailing 
verve,  an  ardent  need  to  display  and  to  project  herself, 
the  sense  and  instinct  of  fun,  that  is  to  say,  of  joke,  of 
unwounding  and  familiar  drollery.  People  say  that  her 
humour  is  dying  out.  But  I  do  not  know  many  salons 
where  raillery,  repartee,  and  a  biting  brilliance  are  more 
in  honour  than  in  certain  Dublin  drawingrooms  ;  and  I 
know  of  nothing  more  charming  in  the  way  of  spiritual 
finesse  than  the  speeches  with  which  the  Cardinal  Primate 
is  wont  to  regale  his  auditors  at  Maynooth  and  elsewhere. 
The  peasants  of  the  West,  grave,  as  all  men  are  who  live 
close  to  the  earth,  put  a  reserve  over  their  joviality. 
But  in  the  towns  it  flashes  forth  :  the  Irish  are,  one 
would  say,  the  Southerners  of  the  North  ;  to  see  the 
popular  exuberance  and  volubility  of  a  Dublin  crowd, 
the  far  niente  of  the  gamins  sitting  around  Nelson's 
Pillar,  is  to  be  reminded  of  the  lazzaroni  of  Santa  Lucia. 
It  is  not  only  in  poetry  that  the  Celt  of  Ireland  loves 
and  seeks  out  adventure  and  battle,  but  in  reality  also, 
as  when  in  the  battlefield  of  politics,  he  passes  from 
strong  words  to  fisticuffs,  or  when,  in  the  British  uniform, 
he  fights  England's  battles  in  South  Africa.  Emotional, 
excitable  and  changeable,  he  is  and  will  remain  a  creature 
of  impulse  until  something  is  done  to  develop  and 
discipline  his  character.  "  Dear  me  !  What  a  mercurial 
race  we  are,  and  how  the  mercury  runs  up  and  down  in 
the  barometer  of  our  human  hearts  !"  7  Nowhere  is  the 
correspondence  more  striking  between  man  and  climate 
than   under   this   mutable   and   shifting   sky  ;     with   its 

7  My  New  Curate,  by  Canon  Sheehan,  p.  1 56. 


158  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

constant  changes  of  weather,  its  alternation  of  dreadful 
tempests  which  drown  everything  in  a  moment,  and  the 
end  of  which  can  only  be  awaited  with  patience  since  all 
struggle  is  vain,  and  of  beautiful  bursts  of  sunshine 
which  fill  the  eyes  with  joy  and  the  heart  with  hope, 
when  the  storms  are  forgotten  and  life  becomes  easy  and 
pleasant  again.  "  All  the  faults  and  all  the  qualities  of 
the  solitary  man,"  said  Renan.  But  no  one  is  more 
dominated  by  the  social  instinct,  the  need  for  society, 
than  the  Celt  of  Ireland.  The  Englishman  does  not  fear 
solitude  ;  the  Irishman  loves  company  and  needs  contact 
with  his  kind.  "  Better  be  quarrelling  than  be  lonesome," 
says  the  proverb  !  The  peasant  of  Ireland  finds  nothing 
so  good  as  those  long  evenings,  passed  under  his  own 
roof  or  a  neighbour's,  round  the  turf  fire  which  badly 
lights  up  his  blackened  cottage,  and  where  he  talks  not 
only  of  politics  but  of  the  past,  of  absent  friends,  of  the 
invisible  beings,  the  "  good  people,"  the  fairies.  With 
the  passing  stranger  he  is  affable  and  dignified,  neither 
awkward  nor  familiar.  Thackeray,  though  he  did  not 
love  Ireland,  could  not  when  he  was  travelling  there  in 
1843  nefp  noting,  in  his  Irish  Sketch  Book,  the  easy 
manners  of  these  "  gentlemen  of  high  and  low  rank,  men 
shrewd  and  delicate  of  perception,  observant  of  society, 
entering  into  the  feelings  of  others,  and  anxious  to  set 

them  at  ease  and  gratify  them I  wish  in  England 

we  were  a  little  more  complimentary."  The  rough  and 
curt  manner  of  the  ill-educated  American  might  have 
been  expected  since  that  time  to  have  made  its  influence 
felt  in  Ireland,  yet  the  traveller  is  still  struck,  above  all 
in  the  West,  by  the  instinctive  urbanity  and  natural 
grace  of  that  old  race  of  peasants  who  are  born 
noblemen,  and  beside  whom  the  English  yokel  is  a  thick- 
skinned  and  stupid  boor.  They  cling  to  one  another  and 
help  one  another  in  times  of  famine.  They  even  abuse, 
by  times,  the  best  virtues  of  the  heart  :  from  weakness 
and  fear  of  unpopularity  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  will 
sometimes   not   venture   to   refuse   a    "  licence  "   to   his 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    159 

neighbour  ;  a  jury  will  not  convict  an  acquaintance. 
There  is  another  trait  that  proceeds  from  the  same  type 
of  temperament.  "  What  the  Irishman  is  really  attached 
to  in  Ireland,"  says  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  "  is  not  a  home 
but  a  social  order — the  pleasant  amenities,  the  courtesies, 
the  leisureliness,  the  associations  of  religion,  and  the 
familiar  faces  of  his  neighbours,  whose  ways  and  minds 
are  like  his  and  very  unlike  those  of  any  other  people — 
these  are  the  things  to  which  he  clings  in  Ireland,  and 
which  he  remembers  in  exile."  8  For  the  Englishman, 
"  home  "  means  his  own  comfortable  and  independent 
corner  :  ubi  bene  ibi  patriot.  For  the  Irishman  it  means, 
besides  the  cottage  of  his  birth,  his  traditional  and  familiar 
surroundings,  his  environment.  What  to  the  one  is  a 
physical  fact  is  to  the  other  a  social  fact.  The  one  says 
"  chez  moi,"  and  the  other,  as  we  French  do,  says 
"  chez  nous." 

Are  we  to  regard  this,  as  has  often  been  suggested,  as  a 
survival  of  the  old  clan  spirit  ?  "  In  no  other  race," 
Renan  has  justly  said,  "  is  the  tie  of  blood  so  strong  ; 
nowhere   has   it    created   more   duties,    nowhere   has   it 

attached  man   to  his  like  so  widely  and  so  deeply 

It  is  a  widespread  belief  in  this  country  (Brittany)  that 
blood  speaks."  9  Politically  speaking,  the  clans  have 
disappeared  since  Cromwell.  The  only  relics  of  those 
primitive  social  forms  are  to  be  found  in  some  curious 
and  isolated  instances,  such  as  that  fisher  community  of 
the  Galway  Claddagh,  which  has  its  own  laws,  king  and 
customs,  and  where  it  would  be  rash  to  call  in  the  police 
or  invoke  the  Courts  of  Justice.  At  certain  times  it  is 
not  uncommon  to  see  all  the  Coffeys,  for  instance,  or  all 
the  Joyces,  voting  together  at  an  election.     The  family 

8  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  54.  It  must  not  be  concluded  that 
the  Irish  peasant  does  not  love  his  cottage  and  his  field  with  passion 
If  he  does  not  expend  as  much  care  and  trouble  as  the  French  peasant, 
on  making  his  cottage  comfortable,  clean,  and  gay,  it  is  but  the 
consequence  of  insecurity  of  tenure.  (Cf.  on  the  life  of  the  peasant, 
the  Irish  home,  the  celebrated  romance  of  Kickham,  entitled 
Knocknagow). 

9  Op.  cit.,  p.  381.  ( 


i6o  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

has  here  remained  the  social  unit.  When  a  son  succeeds 
his  father  he  inherits  not  in  his  own  behalf  but  in  that  of 
the  family.  In  the  West  the  English  civil  law  which  has 
been  officially  sovereign  for  the  last  three  centuries 
remains  more  often  than  not  a  dead  letter  :  it  has  neither 
suppressed  nor  supplanted  custom  ;  and  nine  times  out 
of  ten  by  this  custom  it  is  not  the  children  who  inherit 
from  their  father  but  the  widow  from  her  husband. 
Out  of  the  same  spirit  arise  those  local  divisions  and 
jealousies,  those  boycotts  and  vendettas,  which  last  from 
generation  to  generation.  More  often  than  not,  say  the 
Irish  themselves,  we  go  in  groups,  in  cliques,  in  separate 
leagues  ;  with  us  individualism  has  not  yet  come  forth 
from  its  Limbo,  and  the  community  is  still  the  dominant 
fact.  Any  singularity  in  any  person  in  this  homogeneous 
circle,  any  appearance  of  superiority  in  one  member  over 
another,  is  looked  upon  with  disfavour.  There  are  no 
innovations,  no  eagerness  for  progress,  for  that  would 
show  a  lack  of  respect  for  one's  neighbour.  The  sense 
of  equality  keeps  the  people  conservative. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  Irish  and  English  from  the 
social  point  of  view.  The  Englishman  is,  of  all  Western 
people  the  most  individualistic  ;  he  respects  the  social 
hierarchy,  not  only  because  he  is  indifferent  to  the  lives 
and  the  opinions  of  others,  but  because  he  is  strong,  and 
feels  himself  capable  of  climbing  the  steps  of  this 
hierarchy.  He  is  more  attached  to  liberty,  which  is  a 
thing,  than  to  equality,  which  is  a  word,  or  at  all  events, 
a  completely  relative  expression.  The  Irishman,  on  the 
contrary,  is  above  all  things  democratic,  and,  like  the 
Frenchman,  is  less  devoted  to  liberty  than  to  equality. 
He  desires  progress  not  for  the  isolated  individual  (who 
is  too  feeble  to  achieve  it  for  himself),  but  for  classes, 
for  social  strata,  for  the  community.  He  protests  against 
English  oppression  because  it  is  foreign,  but  nevertheless, 
he  endures  in  his  own  immediate  life  petty  local 
tyrannies,  like  those,  among  others,  of  the  League 
Committees,  because  he  has  not  the  energy  and  force  of 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    161 

the  individualistic  temperament,  which  would  be  necessary 
to  make  himself  respected  ;  were  he  leader  himself  he 
would  be  authoritative  and  hard,  after  the  manner  of 
the  workman  become  master.  He  is  in  ordinary  life  a 
conservative,  though  quick  enough  to  revolt  if  things  go 
badly.  There  is  no  greater  temptation  for  the  son  of  a 
big  farmer  than  to  go  into  the  police,  and  no  greater 
pleasure  for  his  brothers  than  to  "  batter  "  the  police 
upon  occasion.  What,  in  short,  is  all  this  if  not  the  result 
of  arrested  evolution  of  that  factor  of  modern  life,  which 
is  the  token  of  a  healthy  and  prosperous  society, 
Individualism  ? 


IT. — The  Effect  of  the  Past. 

What  is  the  cause  of  this  arrest  in  the  social  develop- 
ment of  Ireland  ?  Manifestly  it  is  to  be  sought  in  Irish 
history  as  England  has  been  making  it  for  the  last  seven 
centuries — seven  centuries  of  raids,  of  warfare,  of  massacre, 
of  invasion  and  of  persecution.  It  needs  an  effort  to 
realise  the  frightful  and  destructive  influence  of  such  a 
past  upon  the  soul  of  Ireland.  At  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  when  the  race  was  already  worn 
out  by  that  long  sequence  of  horrors  which  stretches 
from  Elizabeth  to  Cromwell  and  William  III.,  came  the 
Penal  Laws  under  which  she  fell,  as  a  Protestant l  writer 
has  said,  to  the  lowest  degree  possible  to  humanity. 

Poverty  and  ignorance  were  decreed  by  law  ;  the  son 
was  incited  to  betray  the  father,  and  the  flock  to  denounce 
the  shepherd.  When,  a  century  later,  they  were  repealed, 
they  left  their  effects  behind.  They  had  not  weaned 
Ireland  from  her  religion,  but  they  had  made  her  a  slave, 
with  the  weaknesses  and  the  vices  of  a  slave.  Backs 
were  bent,  and  characters  demoralised.  The  effect 
remained,  and  it  endures.  It  still  endures,  for  oppression 
endures,  that  political,  economic,  social,  and   intellectual 

1  Ball,  The  Reformed  Church  in  Ireland,  London,  1886,  p.  164. 

M 


IÔ2  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

oppression  which,  in  the  last  fifty  years,  has  driven  half 
her  population  out  of  Ireland,  and  added  a  fresh  source 
of  decay  to  those  which  existed.  Ireland  to-day  is  only 
beginning  to  raise  herself  up  and  to  re-make  her  soul. 
What  has  she  been  doing  for  a  century  and  a  half  ? 
She  has  "  gone  the  pace,"  it  might  be  said.  She  has 
used  up  all  her  strength  merely  in  living,  and  had  none 
left  for  the  task  of  reformation  and  advance.  Is  it  not 
true,  as  has  been  said,  that  success  brings  to  light  the 
qualities  of  a  people,  and  misfortune  their  failings  ?  2 
This  is  why  the  faults  of  the  Irish  are  so  difficult  to 
distinguish  from  their  misfortunes. 

The  Irishman,  it  is  said,  is  untruthful  and  perfidious, 
cruel  and  vindictive,  reckless  and  ungovernable,  and 
devoid  of  respect  for  justice  or  law.  May  this  not  be 
because  until  quite  recently  he  has  had  no  justice  done 
him,  no  law  but  that  which  was  used  to  his  hurt  ?  This 
oppression  would  engender  in  him  dissimulation,  the 
spirit  of  vengeance  and  of  anarchy,  as  poverty  engenders 
vice.  He  is  quarrelsome  and  jealous,  always  a  prey  to 
dissensions,  always  ready  to  betray  !  It  was  an  Irishman, 
MacMurrough,  who  invited  the  English  to  Ireland.  There 
is  a  proverb  that  if  you  put  an  Irishman  on  the  spit 
vou  will  always  find  another  to  turn  it.  But  what 
vanquished  nation  has  ever  escaped  the  curse  of  civil 
war  ?  Moreover,  what  has  England  left  undone  that 
she  could  do  to  divide  and  corrupt  the  Irish  ?  3 

Reckless  and  idle,  without  dignity  or  mastery  of  self, 
they  lack  energy  in  their  practical  life,  and  character  in 
their  moral  life — this  is  the  great  reproach  most  commonly 
directed  against  them,  as  it  is  also  the  point  in  which 
the  effect  of  their  past  is  best  manifested  in  them. 
Beyond  doubt  there  must  be  some  quality  in  this  damp 

2  See  the  New  Ireland  Review,  July  to  December,  1901.  Letters 
from  Ireland,  by  H.  B. 

3  "  We  were  reckless,  ignorant,  improvident,  drunken  and  idle.  We 
were  idle,  for  we  had  nothing  to  do  ;  we  were  reckless,  for  we  had  no 
hope  ;  we  were  ignorant,  for  learning  was  denied  us  ;  we  were 
improvident,  for  we  had  no  future  ;  we  were  drunken,  for  we  sought 
to  forget  our  misery."      (Sir  R.  Kane,  Industrial  Resources  of  Ireland). 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    163 

and  soft  climate,  this  "  sedative,  soporific  "  air,4    which 
depresses  and  enervates  the  mind.      It  helps  to   explain 
those  easy-going  manners  and  ways  of  taking  life,    that 
strength    of    endurance   but     not     of     enterprise,    that 
occasional  capacity  for  the  most  vigorous  effort  which  is 
accompanied    in    the    ordinary  course   of    things  by  an 
extreme   lack  of  perseverance,   that   lazy   and    indolent 
dilletantism  which  is  found  among  the   most    cultivated 
men,  that  lack  of  nervous  energy,  in    short,  for    which 
but   a  poor  compensation  is  to  be  found  in  spasmodic, 
nervous  outbursts,  and  which  contrasts  sharply  with  the 
less   brilliant   but   more   steady,   energetic   and     regular 
temperament  of  the  Anglo-Saxon. 5      But  none  the   less 
there  is  no  doubt  that  oppression  has  singularly  a  ggravated 
the  evil;    the  Penal  Laws  proscribed  effort  by     taking 
away  the  end  and  the  reward  of  effort  ;   and  even  to-day 
the  English  regime  closes  the  path    of   progess    to    the 
Irish.      Take  the  case  of  the  peasant.      He  is    idle    and 
negligent  ;    he  is  a  bad  farmer  and  would  rather,    where 
he  can,  have  his  land  in  pasture  than  in  tillage,   because 
pasture  means  less  trouble — indeed  in  certain  rich  districts 
the  art  of  tillage  has  been  almost  completely  unlearned. 
But  this  is  because  during  the  centuries  others  have  reaped 
what  he  had  sown  ;    it  is  because  the  fruit  of  his  work 
has  always  been  confiscated  by  the  landlord.       "  Why 
sleepest  thou,  Moujick  ?  "  6       How    that  plaintive  song 
of  the  Slavs  might  be  applied  to  the  Irish  peasant  !      If 
the  Irish  moujick  sleeps,  it  is  because  poverty  has  become 
natural  to  him  and  he  has  lost  ambition  for  better  things, 
If  his  cottage  is  dirty  and  badly  kept,  with  the  dung-hill 
before  the  door,  the  pig  under  the  same  roof  as  his  master, 
and  not  a  flower  to  rejoice  the  eye,  it  is  because  to-day, 
despite  all  the  laws  that  have  been  passed,  his  improve- 
ments would  often  increase  his  rent. 7       "  I    have  no 

4  My  New  Curate,  p.  198. 

5  Old  chronicles  say  that  persistence  in  work  was  formerly  a  racial 
characteristic  among  the  Irish.      (Cf.  de  Beaumont,  op.  cit.  I.,  353. 

6  A.  Leroy- Beaulieu,  L'Empire  des  Tsars  et  les  Russes,  I.,   138. 

7  See  below,  The  Land  Question. 


i64         POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

doubt,"  wrote  Sir  G.  C.  Lewis,  "  that  a  Protestant  German 
peasantry,  if  properly  oppressed  and  brutalised,  would  be 
made  as  bad  as  the  Irish."8  The  same  applies,  and  for 
the  same  reason,  to  the  country  or  city  worker.  There  is 
a  wrong  spirit  abroad  which  borders  on  dishonesty  if  it 
does  not  reach  to  it.  People  work  hard  when  their 
master's  eye  is  upon  them,  but  when  he  has  gone  they 
sing,  or  go  for  a  walk.  As  a  result  of  lack  of  training 
as  much  as  of  lack  of  energy,  they  take  a  day  to  do  what 
a  good  American  workman  would  finish  in  an  hour. 
"  What  a  pity,"  writes  an  American,  contrasting  the 
habits  of  workers  in  the  two  countries,  9  "  that  people 
should  have  to  go  to  America  to  learn  so  elementary  a 
lesson  as  that  of  work."  From  top  to  bottom  of  the 
scale,  initiative,  the  practical  spirit,  the  sense  of  order 
and  accuracy,  have  been  obliterated  by  lack  of  usage  as 
well  as  by  lack  of  education,  and  they  are  only  beginning 
to  be  recovered.  There  is  plenty  of  good-will  but  little 
will.  Work  is  spasmodic,  not  systematic.  Circumstances 
are  not  exacting,  and  people  are  content  with  little — 
"  That  will  do  !  "  How  many  industries  and  businesses 
have  failed  through  lack  of  method  and  of  care  !  In 
England  "  Irish  "  has  become  synonymous  with  "  bad." 
Good  "  managers  "  are  rare  ;  negligence,  carelessness, 
bungling  are  supreme  in  the  domestic  economy  among 
the  peasantry  as  among  the  upper  classes.  People  are 
close  in  little,  and  extravagant  in  big  things  ;  "  penny 
wise  and  pound  foolish." 

Morally  speaking,  then,  while  the  Irishman  is  no  longer 
a  slave,  he  has  still  something  of  the  slave  in  him,  or  at 
best  of  the  freed  bondsman.  He  is  hardly  able  to  rid 
himself  of  that  sense  of  inferiority  which  his  old  masters 
have  so  strongly  inculcated  in  him.  To  his  former 
oppressor  he  often  shows  a  remnant  of  servility,  unless, 
indeed,  by  reaction  he  may  affect  a  tone  of  aggravated 
rudeness  like  that   old  peasant   of  whom   Mr.   William 

s  Quoted  by  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy  in  Young  Ireland. 

9  New  Iyeland  Review,   1901.      (Letters  from  Ireland). 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    165 

O'Brien  speaks,  who,  hearing  the  insolence  of  land  agents 
in  the  past  recalled,  replied,  "  Begob,  we'll  have  them 
put  their  hands  to  their  hats  for  us  yet."  IO  As  concerns 
himself  he  has  retained  from  his  servitude  a  certain  lack 
of  dignity,  of  moral  discipline,  of  self-mastery  and  self- 
respect.  "Hence,"  said  Gustave  de  Beaumont11  in  1835, 
"that  deplorable  negligence,  that  lack  of  neatness  .  .  . 
that  laisser  aller,  that  carelessness  of  his  person,  that  total 
absence  of  self-respect  and  personality,  which  are  direct 
results  of  his  former  condition."  A  fine  talker,  but  devoid 
of  the  critical  sense,  vaunting  and  verbose,  he  will  often 
make  himself  ridiculous  without  being  aware  of  it.  Full 
of  physical  courage,  he  is  often  deficient  in  moral  courage; 
he  lacks  confidence  in  himself,  initiative,  and  energy,  and 
has  lost  the  habit  of  looking  things  in  the  face.  He  quails 
before  responsibilities,  and  has  forgotten  how  to  will,  for 
his  soul  is  still  a  serf.  "  Don't  cheer  the  Boers,  but 
imitate  them  !  "  was  the  advice  which  Mr.  William 
O'Brien  could  not  resist  tendering  to  his  countrymen 
not  long  ago.  This  is  all  the  product  of  the  past,  the 
work  of  servitude  and  poverty,  prolonged  by  oppression, 
and — we  shall  return  to  the  point  later — by  the  Anglicisa- 
tion  of  Ireland,  and  the  inadequacy  of  the  school  system. 
It  makes  up  an  ensemble  of  faults  rather  than  of  vices,  and  of 
sins  of  omission  rather  than  sins  of  commission.  In  few 
countries  are  morals  purer,  in  few  is  "  character  "  less 
developed.  Other  peoples,  as  it  has  been  said,  have 
the  qualities  necessary  for  this  world,  the  Irish  have  the 
qualities  which  are  needed  for  the  other.  "  Though  the 
catalogue  of  Irish  faults  seems  trivial  as  compared  with 
the  vices  of  other  nations,"  a  critic  remarked  a  little 
while  ago,12  "  their  grave  disadvantage  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  are  those  which  go  to  make  bad  citizens.  The 
defects  of  the  Irish  are  not  deadly  sins.  But,"  he  adds 
jocularly,     "  as  the  world  is  constituted,  a  few  deadly 

10  Irish  Ideas,  p.  25. 

11  Op.  cit.,  I.,  356. 

12  New  Ireland  Review,  September,  19UI. 


i66         POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

sins,  masked  by  a  little  discreet  hypocrisy,  might  prove 
less  detrimental  to  the  sinner's  prospects  here  below." 


III. — Public  Life  and  Public  Opinion. 

Of  Irish  public  opinion  the  best  that  one  can  say  is 
that,  emerging  as  it  is  from  childhood,  it  is  as  yet  hardly 
emancipated,  and  shows  in  any  event  a  great  lack  of 
education  and  experience.  Left  without  any  guidance 
or  support  beyond  that  of  a  very  small  number  of 
independent  men,  it  has  all  the  naivete  and  thoughtless- 
ness of  youth,  all  its  enthusiasms  and  illusions.  It  is 
careless  and  ignorant  ;  so  that  on  such  grave  questions 
as  that  of  education  it  remains  silent.  It  has,  too,  the 
intolerance  of  youth  ;  it  lacks  the  critical  sense,  and  is 
impatient  of  all  criticism.  People  do  not  discuss,  but 
dispute,  they  exchange  insults  but  do  not  argue,  or 
examine  their  consciences.  They  are  lost  in  regrets  for 
the  past,  and  are  never  done  with  the  historical 
grievances  of  Ireland  :  every  misfortune  of  the  present 
day  is  imputed  to  England,  as  if  it  were  an  insult  to 
patriotism  to  suppose  that  the  Irish  could  have  faults. 
The  outlook  is  obscured  by  prejudices,  passions,  and 
childish  trivialities,  in  the  midst  of  which  the  good  sense 
of  the  people  can  only  struggle  painfully  along.  The 
Government  is  at  once  denounced,  and  asked  for  alms. 
England  is  hated,  and  imitated.  Everyone  is  ready  with 
his  diagnosis  of  the  evil  and  his  special  panacea.  It  is 
the  triumph  of  empty  rhetoric  and  fine  phrases.  The 
cry  goes  up,  "  Long  live  the  Boers  !  "  but  they  are  not 
imitated,  whatever  Mr.  William  O'Brien  may  say. 
People  shout  God  save  Ireland  !  Ireland  a  Nation  !  and 
when  they  have  shouted  themselves  hoarse  their 
consciences  are  at  rest  and  they  return  home.  It  is 
easy  to  understand  how  it  is  that  the  utilitarians  and  the 
realists  turn  to  where  life  and  success  are  real,  that  is, 
to  the  service  of  the  Government  ;    while  the  idealists 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    167 

and  the  disillusioned  fall  back  in  desperation  upon  the 
most  intransigeant  separatism. 

The  Press,  like  the  politicians,  helps  to  keep  Ireland 
in  this  wordy  agitation  and  this  destructive  rhetoric. 
The  Irishman,  it  is  said,  is  a  born  politician  ;  he  is,  above 
all,  a  born  journalist.  He  has  all  the  qualities  of  the 
profession,  ease,  spirit,  and  verve  ;  and  Ireland  furnishes 
a  good  part  of  the  personnel  of  the  British  press,  even  of 
the  anti-Irish  section  of  it.  We  do  not  speak  here  of  the 
local  press,  which  is  lamentable.  In  the  great  Dublin 
journals  there  is,  at  the  same  time,  more  talent  and  less 
seriousness  and  variety  of  interest  than  in  the  English 
press.  Nationalist  or  Unionist,  Irish  journalism  is  party 
journalism.  Unskilled  in  calm  and  fruitful  discussion,  it 
loves  violence  and  insult.  It  ignores,  when  it  cannot 
destroy,  strong  adversaries  and  disagreeable  facts.  There 
were  once  (without  even  going  as  far  back  as  the  Nation) 
newspapers  which  tried  to  form  public  opinion  ;  men 
like  Dwyer  Gray,  formerly  editor  of  the  Freeman,  had  a 
lofty  enough  conception  of  journalism  ;  but  to-day  every 
sheet  is  modelled  on  the  opinion  of  its  readers.  The 
question  of  drunkenness  and  public-houses,  for  instance, 
must  not  be  touched.  Even  among  the  Nationalists 
editors  are  afraid  to  raise  such  a  question  as  that  of  the 
enlisting  of  Irishmen  in  the  British  army.  And  apart 
from  politics  it  is  in  things  fiom  England — fashions, 
theatres,  races,  British  life — that  this  anti-British  press 
is  most  interested.  Who  was  it  that  said  that  journalism 
has  no  fatherland  ? 

Irish  newspapers,  as  the  Irish  themselves,  are  often 
reproached  for  their  abuse  of  politics  and  there  is  reason 
in  the  reproach.  It  must,  nevertheless,  be  remembered 
that  as  a  result  of  English  oppression  and  of  social 
cleavages,  every  Irish  question  inevitably  takes  on  an 
aspect  which  is  either  political  or  religious.  It  must 
also  be  recognised  that  politics  are  for  the  Irishman 
something  in  the  nature  of  a  national  sport,  in  which 
he  finds  material  to  flatter  and  satisfy  at  once  his  taste 


i68         POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

for  display  and  his  taste  for  fighting.  He  likes 
demonstration  for  its  own  sake,  for  "the  fun  of  it," 
independently  of  its  object.  He  has  a  natural  love  for 
"  scenes  "  in  Parliament,  for  meetings  on  the  model  of  a 
grand  orchestra  at  which,  after  a  whole  afternoon  of 
discourses,  denunciations  and  "resolutions,"  the  crowd 
marches  through  the  streets  with  bands,  banners  and 
songs.  To  the  same  source  we  must  refer  those 
impressive  declarations  passed  by  political  leagues  in  which 
a  landlord-hunt  or  a  grazier-boycott  is  decided  upon — 
although  everyone  has  decided  in  advance  to  have  nothing 
to  do  with  it — and  all  those  little  manoeuvres  designed 
to  upset  the  minds  of  the  Unionists  and  the  "  Castle," 
grants  refused  by  the  County  Councils  for  the  upkeep  of 
courthouses,  loyal  arms  scratched  off  the  facades  of 
town  halls,  British  crowns  removed  from  municipal 
uniforms,  the  letters  "  O.H.M.S."  effaced  from  official 
notepaper.  We  must  seek,  too,  the  same  explanation 
for  the  scenes  of  violence,  worthy  of  revolutionary  clubs, 
of  which  the  municipal  councils  of  Dublin  and  Limerick 
have  a  speciality  but  not  a  monopoly  ;  insults  exchanged 
between  the  members  and  sometimes  accompanied  by 
assaults  ;  the  galleries  intervening  in  the  discussion  ;  the 
name  of  the  king  hissed  ;  the  chairman  negotiating  with 
the  disturbers  and  finally  forced  to  suspend  the  sittings. 
The  Irishman  loves  a  battle  in  which  blows  are  given 
and  received  :  one  needs  to  have  seen  one  of  those 
meetings  which  begin  by  a  mere  scuffle  with  naked  hands 
and  end  with  a  regular  combat  with  the  police;  one  of 
those  rousing  election  melees,  at  which  the  combatants 
arrive  with  their  camans  in  their  hands,  and  each  party 
tries  to  prevent  the  other  from  holding  its  meeting,  and 
attempts  to  seize  the  hostile  flags,  throwing  stones  and 
bricks  at  random.  All  this  is  "  play,"  nervous  super- 
tension  expending  itself  in  superficial  demonstrations,  and 
no  one  thinks  of  taking  it  too  seriously.  "  Irishmen 
cannot  be  taken  too  much  au  pied  de  la  lettre"  wrote  an 
Irishman   a  short     time     ago.      It   is  practically  what 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    169 

Wellington  meant  when  he  said  that  in  Ireland  it  were 
well  that  the  Government  should  be  a  little  hard  of  hearing. 
As  can  easily  be  understood,  politics  practised  after  this 
fashion — and  the  Unionists  are  no  more  exempt  than  the 
Nationalists — are  not  likely  to  draw  the  more  moderate 
and  capable  Irishmen  into  the  arena.  There  are,  thank 
God  !  enlightened  and  cultivated  men  in  politics,  but 
they  are  not  the  majority,  and  the  majority  does  not 
fail  to  make  its  omnipotence  felt.  There  is  nothing  to 
keep  it  in  check  ;  public  opinion  is  so  backward,  so 
changeable,  and  the  number  of  independent  minds  is  so 
few.  Have  we  not  already  said  that  once  in  power  the 
Irishman  is  inclined  to  abuse  it  ?  Theie  are  in  the 
"  Castle  "  a  certain  number  of  Irishmen  of  good  birth  ; 
and  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  they  are  far  more 
despotic  in  their  tendencies  than  their  English  colleagues. 
Similarly,  if  the  occasion  arises,  no  one  can  be  more 
brutal  than  the  Irish  policeman.  Authoritative  and 
exclusive,  the  politicians  reprobate  all  independence,  are 
jealous  of  every  movement  distinct  from  theirs,  and 
claim  a  monopoly  of  patriotism.  Under  the  aegis  of  the 
Members  of  Parliament,  the  "  oligarchy  of  eighty,"  they 
form  a  ring  or  syndicate,  a  mutual  admiration  society 
whose  narrow  and  intolerant  orthodoxy  must  be  accepted  : 
to  criticise  is  to  betray,  and  at  the  slightest  remark  you 
are  shown  the  door.  The  servants  of  the  people  have 
made  themselves  the  masters. 

The  corollaries  of  this  political  despotism  are  the 
dissensions,  the  "  factions,"  the  vendettas  of  persons  or 
parties  into  which  the  different  leaders  draw  the  country 
whose  forces  they  thus  vainly  waste.  The  mot  d'ordre  is  : 
"  Wreck  what  you  cannot  rule  !  "  Nothing  equals  the 
violence  of  the  insults  which  an  Irish  politician  is  capable 
of  hurling  at  the  head  of  an  antagonist,  if  it  be  not  the 
violence  of  those  which  he  is  accustomed  to  receive. 
True,  here  also,  things  must  be  taken  cum  grano  salis  ; 
all  is  quickly  forgotten,  and  next  year  you  may  see  the 
two    adversaries    shake    hands    in    public.      The    best 


170  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

example  of  such  political  quarrels  feverishly  espoused  by 
the  nation  is  the  celebrated  schism  provoked  in  1890  by 
Parnell's  refusal,  after  the  divorce  affair,  to  retire  from 
the  Chairmanship  of  the  Irish  Party.  The  majority  having 
pronounced  against  him,  the  anti-Parnellites  declared 
war  upon  the  Parnellites.  Ten  months  later  the 
vanquished  Parnell  died.  One  might  have  expected 
that  at  this  point  the  quarrel  would  have  died  out  ;  but 
so  far  from  doing  so,  it  lasted  another  ten  years. 

Does  this  mean  that  the  Irish  Celts  are  by  nature,  as 
Mommsen  has  declared,  "  politically  incapable  ?  "  I 
Does  it  mean  that  they  are  more  attached  to  persons 
than  to  principles  ;  or  that,  accustomed  to  obey  but  not 
to  govern  themselves,  they  stand  always  in  need  of  a 
master,  a  dictator  ?  The  Celtophobe  would  erect  into  a 
race  trait  what  is  in  reality  but  the  temporary  effect  of  a 
retardation  in  the  social  development  of  the  country. 
If  political  education  is  still  backward,  and  the  political 
sense  still  in  a  rudimentary  stage,  this  is  the  result  of 
oppression,  of  the  survival  of  servitude.  O'Connell,  who 
was  the  first  to  start  popular  action  and  agitation,  did 
nothing  to  form  opinion  ;  Young  Ireland  devoted  itself, 
not  without  success,  but  for  too  short  a  time,  to  that 
work  of  social  education  which  was  so  roughly  interrupted 
by  the  Great  Famine  ;  finally  Parnell  governed  Ireland 
in  a  crisis  of  exceptional  gravity,  in  the  course  of  which 
a  matured  public  opinion  could  only  come  as  the  result 
of  the  lessons  of  experience.  That  experience  is  now 
beginning  to  bear  fruit.  Although  still  very  primitive, 
opinion  is  beginning  to  free  itself  from  its  leading  strings, 
and  to  grow  self-conscious.  Democratic  local  government 
is  little  by  little  training  the  people  in  the  conduct  of 
their  affairs  ;  the  political  sense,  the  critical  spirit,  are 
awakening  ;  the  number  of  independent  minds  is  on 
the  increase,  and  raimeis  is  less  impudently  assertive.  A 
dictator  like  Parnell  or  O'Connell  would  no  longer  be 

1  Politisch  durch  und  dutch  unbrauchbare  Nation.  (Romische 
Geschichte,  III.,  285). 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    171 

possible  to-day,  nor  would  a  schism  like  that  which 
dishonoured  the  last  ten  years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  great  leaders  of  aforetime  are  no  longer,  or  have  no 
longer  their  former  influence  ;  they  are  weighed  down 
by  the  failure  of  the  Home  Rule  movement,  which  was 
the  gieat  work  of  their  life.  The  leagues  themselves 
are  far  from  exercising  the  undisputed  sovereignty  of 
the  Land  or  the  National  Leagues  ;  they  no  longer 
concentrate  in  themselves  all  the  aspirations  of  the 
country.  Times  have  changed  and  ideas  have  progressed 
since  fifteen  years  ago.  Ireland  has  understood  that 
politics  are  not  everything  ;  other  desires  and  other 
aspirations  have  stirred  into  life  within  her.2 

The  progress  of  public  opinion  and  of  political  morals 
in  Ireland  is  and  must — need  we  say  ? — be  slow,  and 
the  more  so  because  under  the  surface  agitation,  and  the 
skin-deep  excitement,  there  is  at  bottom,  owing  to  the 
exhaustion  of  the  struggle,  a  dead  weight  of  apathy  and 
fatalism.  Ireland  has  long  nourished  herself  on  an 
instinctive  and  excessive  optimism,  which  developed  her 
energy  but  paralyzed  her  judgment  ;  the  reaction  has 
come,  and  now  Ireland  is  abandoning  herself  to  a 
pessimism  in  which  she  finds  a  bitter  joy  ;  she  enjoys 
parading  her  miseries,  exaggerating  them  in  her  own  eyes, 
crying  them  aloud  to  the  world.  Why  struggle  ?  Is 
not  every  effort  doomed  in  advance  to  failure  ?  Can 
any  hope  be  cherished,  save  the  decline  and  fall  of 
England  ?  Why  be  indignant  or  rebellious  ?  Fate  is 
stronger  than  man.  Melancholy  and  discouraged  eyes 
are  fixed  on  the  evils  of  Ireland  and  on  the  irreparable 
past.  "  Ah  me  !  how  the  iron  has  sunk  into  our  souls," 
cries  a  novelist,  "  Seven  centuries  of  slavery  have  done 
their  work  well  ....  Nothing  on  earth  can  cure  the 
inertia  of  Ireland  ....  The  blood  was  stagnant  in  the 
veins  of  the  people,  and  their  feet  were  shod  with 
lead  ....  It  was  the  land  of  the  lotus.  The  people 
were  narcotized.     It  was  a  land  of  sleep  and  dreams."  3 

2  On  these  new  movements  see  Part  III.  of  this  work. 

3  My  New  Curate,  p.  19,  20,  63. 


172  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

Sometimes  it  seems  as  though  a  magic  charm,  an 
enchantment,  heavy  as  lead  and  cold  as  death,  lies  upon 
the  soul  of  Ireland  ;  4  it  seems  as  though  she  were  asleep 
and  paralysed  in  the  lethargy  of  a  sick  man  who  suffers 
and  pities  himself  by  turns  in  his  sleep.  Who  will  awake 
her  ?  She  stirs  restlessly  and  cries  out  through  the  black 
void,  as  though  in  an  evil  dream.  Who,  then,  will  awaken 
Ireland  ? 


IV. — Anti-English  Feeling. 

It  is  said  that  hatred  of  England  is  no  longer  a  living 
force  amongst  Irishmen.  Is  this  quite  true  ?  What  are 
Ireland's  real  sentiments  with  regard  to  England,  the 
King,  and  the  Empire  ? 

Irish  hatred  of  England  is  a  sufficiently  complex  feeling. 
The  English  themselves  are  doubtful  as  to  whether  they 
should  regard  it  as  a  remnant  of  the  spirit  of  revolution, 
and  should  repress  it,  or  whether  they  should  treat  it 
with  scorn,  as  a  sentimental  and  superannuated  pose. 
Apparent  contradictions,  indeed,  are  not  wanting. 
Irishmen  are  never  tired  of  anathematising  the  "  pirate 
Empire,"  that  "  Empire  of  Hell  "  to  which  the 
Presbyterian  Mitchel  dedicated  the  three  hundred  pages 
of  hatred  which  go  to  make  up  his  Jail  Journal. 
Nevertheless  a  large  portion  of  the  British  Empire  is 
administered  by  Irishmen,  who  are  either  members  of 
the  Indian  Civil  Service,  or  leading  politicians  in  Canada 
or  Australia.  Only  a  few  years  ago  the  honour  of  the 
British  army  was  saved  in  South  Africa  by  Irish  soldiers  ; 
notably  by  the  Inniskillings  at  Pieters,  the  Connaught 
Rangers  at  Colenso,  and  the  Dublin  Fusiliers  at  Talana 
Hill.  Of  this  last  regiment  a  thousand  went  to  the  front, 
and  only  three  hundred  returned.  Yet  throughout  the 
whole  war  the  Irish  people  were  aggressively  "  Pro-Boer." 
They  elected  as  member  of  Parliament  for  Galway  a  man 

4  Ideals  in  Ireland,  London,  1901,  p.  81. 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    173 

who  had  just  returned  from  righting  for  the  Boers.  When 
the  newly-elected  County  Councils  met  in  T898,  they 
immediately  voted  addresses  of  congratulation  to  President 
Kruger. 

Who,  then,  are  the  true  representatives  of  Ireland  ? 
Are  they  the  soldiers  or  the  politicians,  the  officials  of 
the  Empire,  or  the  revolutionists  like  Mitchel  ?  The 
question  is  easily  answered.  Hatred  of  England  still 
exists  in  Ireland.  At  the  commencement  of  the  twentieth 
century  the  nation  is  still  rebellious  and  indomitable. 
Every  year  clever  young  men  who  see  no  prospect  of 
success  at  home  go  over  to  England,  where  they  know 
there  is  some  scope  lor  their  talents.  Every  year  there 
are  Irish  mercenaries  who  will  accept  the  "  Saxon 
Shilling"  either  in  a  spirit  of  adventure  or  because  work 
is  scarce.  But  all  this  effects  no  fundamental  change. 
If  Ireland  was  proud  of  the  bravery  of  her  soldiers  in  a 
cause  which  was  not  her  cause,  the  Irish  recruit  is  thought 
little  of  by  his  own  people.  It  is  only  the  good-for- 
nothings  who  enlist,  and  it  is  an  insult  to  a  man  to  say 
that  he  is  in  the  militia.  When  those  poor  fellows  sailed 
from  Queenstown  on  British  transport  ships  for  the 
Cape  in  1900,  they  cried  "  Three  cheers  for  Kruger  !  " 
Indeed  it  is  doubtful  if  they  knew  for  whom  or  for  what 
they  were  going  to  fight. 

What  is  the  inner  significance  of  this  dislo}^alty  ?  If 
you  ask  a  moderate  Nationalist  he  will  answer  vou  in 
some  such  words  as  these  :  "  Why  is  Ireland  rebellious  ? 
England  is  loyal  because  she  is  free  and  prosperous. 
The  Colonies  are  loyal  for  the  same  reason  ;  they  would 
cease  to  be  loyal  the  instant  they  lost  their  liberty  and 
prosperity.  On  the  other  hand,  Ireland  is  rebellious 
because  she  is  neither  free  nor  happy.  Everything  which 
makes  England  and  the  Colonies  loyal  makes  Ireland 
rebellious.  To  whom  and  to  what  are  we  to  be  loyal  ? 
Loyal  to  famine,  to  landlordism,  and  to  coercion  ?  To  a 
Government  whose  only  policy  has  ever  been  divide  ut 
imfteres,  and  to  a  Constitution  which  deprives  us  of  our 


174         POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

rights  ?  England  has  oppressed  and  exploited  us  for 
seven  centuries  ;  her  object  still  is  to  depopulate  and 
Anglicise  the  country  and  to  destroy  the  race.  Her  aim 
is  to  turn  Ireland  into  a  cattle-ranch.  She  distorts 
historical  facts  in  order  to  spread  slanderous  theories, 
and  thinks  she  has  atoned  for  the  past  when  she  offers 
us  a  series  of  half  measures  and  badly  planned  reforms. 
These  reforms,  moreover,  always  come  too  late,  and  are 
only  granted  in  response  to  threats  of  violence  and 
Fenianism.  England  has  done  her  best  to  turn  us  into 
rebels.  Loyalty  on  our  part  would  only  be  hypocrisy. 
As  for  the  utilitarian  and  conditional  loyalty  of  the 
'  Garrison,'  it  is  the  loyalty  of  a  dog  to  the  master 
who  feeds  it. 

"  Loyalty  is  due  in  the  fust  place  to  the  liberties  of  our 
count rj\  As  a  nation,  Ireland,  like  every  other  nation, 
has  a  right  to  these  liberties.  England  stole  them  from 
us  when  she  abolished  our  Parliament  and  our  Constitution 
by  means  of  that  Act  of  Union  which  was  called  by 
Gladstone  '  the  most  ignoble  transaction  known  to 
history.'  Ever  since  1800  we  have  been  governed  by 
force,  and  by  corruption.  Ireland  has  never  ceased  to 
protest  against  this  tyrannical  usurpation  of  her  rights, 
and  to  disavow— not  the  British  Constitution,  for  she  is 
not  really  governed  by  it — but  the  constitutional  symbols 
which  are  forced  upon  her.  Autonomy  is  granted  to 
Australia,  to  the  Cape,  to  Canada,  and  refused  to  Ireland, 
one  of  the  oldest  Christian  nations  in  the  world  ! 

"The  martyrs  in  the  cause  of  Ireland  are  innumerable. 
They  are  of  different  ranks  and  creeds,  but  they  are 
united  to  each  other  by  their  patriotism.  Reme.nber 
Theobald  Wolfe  Tone,  who  was  tried  and  condemned  by 
court-martial  whilst  wearing  the  French  uniform  ;  the 
two  brothel  s  Sheares  who  were  executed  side  by  side  ; 
Robert  Emmet,  who  forbade  that  his  epitaph  should  be 
written  until  Ireland  had  taken  her  place  amongst  the 
nations  of  the  earth  ;  John  Mitchel,  who  said  to  his 
judges   :    '  I  believe  that  the  course  which  I  have  opened 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    175 

is  only  commenced.  The  Roman  who  saw  his  hand 
burning  to  ashes  before  the  tyrant,  promised  that  three 
hundred  should  follow  out  his  enterprise.  Can  I  not 
promise  for  one,  for  two,  for  three,  aye,  for  hundreds  ?  ' 
In  response  to  his  words  voices  from  all  parts  of  the 
building  exclaimed  :  '  For  me  !  For  me  !  promise  for 
me,  Mitchel  !  ' 

"Invita  pars  Imperii,  Ireland  only  demands  her  liberty  ; 
she  does  not  seek  riches  or  conquests.  What,  in  her 
view,  is  Imperialism  ?  She  sees  in  it  a  gospel  of  force, 
justifying  every  excess.  Victims  of  oppression,  as  we 
Irishmen  are,  we  do  not  wish  to  become  oppressors,  and 
we  have  no  desire  to  share  the  government  of  the  world 
with  England.  We  bestow  our  sympathy  only  on  the 
feeble  and  on  the  vanquished.  It  is  reserved  for  a  handful 
of  Boers  who  are  resisting  the  might  of  England,  or  for 
the  people  of  Spain  in  their  struggle  against  America. 
We  care  nothing  for  that  British  Empire  of  which  Ireland 
is  a  subject.  Our  sons  have  done  more  than  their  share 
towards  establishing  this  Empire,  but  what  does  this 
profit  us  ?  We  have  neither  industries  nor  commerce, 
and  yet  out  of  our  poverty  we  pay  more  than  a  fair 
proportion  of  those  taxes  which  maintain  the  power  of 
Britain.  Our  Empire  is  a  spiritual  Empire — that  Empire 
made  up  of  the  idealism,  the  sentiment,  the  piety  which 
it  is  our  mission  to  propagate  in  opposition  to  the  vile 
current  of  contemporary  materialism.  We  seek  no  new 
spheres  of  influence,  no  new  markets  for  our  goods  ;  our 
mission  is  to  save  souls.  The  British  Empire  is  the  curse 
of  Ireland  ;  it  has  brought  her  nothing  but  suffering 
and  ruin. 

"  Ireland  truly  is  dying  of  wretchedness  and  slavery,  and 
England  has  sworn  to  destroy  her.  Ours  is  a  supreme, 
a  crying  case  of  injustice  ;  so  long  as  the  Irish  are 
miserable  and  enslaved,  so  long  will  they  be  rebels.  We 
are  all  rebels,  and  we  rejoice  in  the  title.  Every  Irishman 
worth  his  salt  is  a  rebel.  '  Loyalty  without  liberty,' 
said  Grattan,  '  means  corruption.'  " 


176         POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

Such  in  substance  is  the  case  for  the  Nationalists. 
Such  arguments  as  these  were  used  by  Parnell,  and  they 
are  still  employed  by  the  leaders  of  the  Parliamentary 
Party.  The  Separatists  despise  such  mild  arguments, 
and  would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  less  than  a  holy  war 
against  England.  The  Opportunists,  or  Whigs,  again, 
would  not  go  so  far  as  the  Parliamentary  Party.  While 
criticising  the  excessive  Imperialism  and  the  dishonesty 
of  Mr.  Healy's  "  John  Bull  and  Co.,  Robbers,"  they  are 
yet  secretly  proud  of  what  they  go  so  far  as  to  call  "  our 
Empire."  Conscious  of  the  futility  of  revolt,  they  keep 
their  nationalism  confined  within  the  strict  limits  of  the 
respect  due  to  the  Crown  and  the  Constitution.  "  Why 
exasperate  the  English,"  they  ask,  "  by  playing  at  drawing- 
room  revolutions  and  theatrical  treason  ?  Since  our  object 
is  to  reform  the  Constitution,  and  to  obtain  self- 
government  by  constitutional  means,  let  us  in  effect  be 
'  Constitutionalists.'  The  Crown  and  the  Constitution 
are  above  politics,  and  loyalty  to  the  Constitution,  but 
especially  to  the  Sovereign,  lessens  no  man's  nationalism." 
But  at  this  point  of  the  argument  the  orthodox 
Nationalists  cry  halt.  "  We  recognise,"  say  they,  "neither 
a  Constitution  nor  a  constitutional  monarch.  We  make 
use  of  constitutional  means  to  obtain  our  end,  but  this 
end  is  not  a  constitutional  one.  We  do  not  object  to 
this  or  that  particular  Government  or  policy,  but  to  the 
pseudo-constitution  which  has  been  forced  upon  us,  and 
which  is  a  fraud  and  a  sham.  The  Crown  is  the  symbol 
of  this  Constitution  ;  the  Sovereign  is  the  representative 
of  England,  So  long,  therefore,  as  Ireland  is  deprived 
of  her  rights,  we  regard  loyalty  to  the  King  or  the 
Constitution  as  synonymous  with  treachery."  l 

1  The  divergence  between  the  two  parties  was  somewhat  marked,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  visit  paid  to  Ireland  in  1900  by  Queen  Victoria, 
and  in  1903  by  King  Edward.  Were  the  various  public  bodies  to 
present  addresses  of  welcome  to  the  Sovereigns  ?  The  question  was 
warmly  debated,  and  was  decided  sometimes  in  one  way,  sometimes  in 
another.  When  Queen  Victoria  came  over  in  1900  she  was  received 
with  no  marks  of  incivility,  although  everyone  knew  that  she  hated 
the  Irish.     Moreover,  as  a   prominent   Nationalist  remarked,  she  came 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT    177 

One  cannot  but  feel,  however,  that  there  is  something 
a  little  artificial  in  this  anti-English  attitude  of  official 
Nationalism,  when  one  notes  the  strange  and  inconsequent 
outbreaks  of  loyalty  by  which  it  is  in  practice  accompanied. 
Thus  in  1900,  the  Corporation  of  Dublin  voted  an 
"  Address  "  to  the  Sovereign,  and  in  1903,  refused  an 
Address.  The  Lord  Mayor,  after  voting  against  the 
Address,  gave  an  official  welcome  to  the  English  fleet, 
and  invited  the  King  to  open  a  charity  bazaar.  Some 
Nationalists  will  drink  the  King's  health  at  private 
functions,  but  refuse  to  do  so  in  public.  In  Dublin, 
military  bands  are  hissed  in  the  Phoenix  Park,  but  when 
a  regiment  marches  along  the  streets  all  the  children, 
little  and  big,  run  beside  it  in  the  greatest  delight,  like 
so  many  Parisian  badauds.2 

Are  we  then  to  conclude  that  Irish  hatred  of  England 
is  a  purely  abstract  and  superficial  affair  ?  By  no  means. 
All  this  simply  proves  that  human  nature  has  its 
weaknesses,  and  that  in  Ireland,  as  elsewhere,  a  man 
must  adjust  himself  to  certain  conventions  and  social 
necessities  if  he  is  to  live  at  all.  Irish  hatred  of  the 
English  people  is  not  very  common,  or,  perhaps,  one  can 
more  justly  say,  is  not  very  deep.  What  is,  however, 
very  general  and  very  deep  is  a  general  spirit  of  hostility 
and  aversion  for  England  as  a  sovereign  power,  for  English 
law  and  the  English  Government.  Ireland  is  full  of 
rancour  for  the  past,  and  of  distrust  for  the  future,  and 
she  cherishes  the  hope  and  the  ambition  of  revenge. 
Disloyalty  of  this  sort  has  undoubtedly  increased  during 
the  nineteenth  century.  That  it  has  done  so  is  due  to 
the  hundred  years  of  British  policy,  which  produced  the 
Clearances,  the  Great  Famine,  and  Emigration.      Large 

over  as  a  recruiting  sergeant,  in  search  of  "  food  for  cannon."  On  the 
other  hand,  King  Edward  is  personally  popular  in  Ireland.  When  he 
was  ill,  in  1902,  general  sympathy  was  felt  for  him  throughout  Ireland, 
and  the  Freeman  concluded  its  leading  article  on  his  illness  with  the 
words,  "  God  save  Ireland." 

2  In  the  same  way,  Unionist  shopkeepers,  in  order  to  retain 
Nationalist  custom,  hang  out  flags  on  the  anniversary  of  the  execution 
of  the  Manchester  Martyrs. 

N 


178  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

numbers  of  Irishmen  have  gone  to  America,  and  have 
become  more  anti-English  than  the  Irish  at  home.  At 
the  time  of  the  Union  the  Catholic  clergy  were  in  favour 
of  the  Government  then  established,  but  now,  all  this  is 
changed.  The  mention  of  the  Queen's  name  at  O'ConnelTs 
Repeal  meetings  was  the  signal  for  a  burst  of  cheers. 
When  in  1837  sne  came  over  to  Ireland  for  the  first  time 
— the  young  and  gracious  successor  to  a  throne  that  had 
of  late  been  stained  by  so  many  scandals — O'Connell 
congratulated  her  on  her  accession  in  the  name  of  the 
Irish  nation.  On  the  other  hand,  when  she  died  in  1901 
the  various  public  bodies  almost  unanimously  refused  to 
vote  addresses  of  condolence,  and  in  the  following  year 
the  Nationalist  members  refused  to  attend  the  Coronation 
of  Edward  VII.  "  Loyalty,"  said  Swift,  "  is  the  foible 
of  the  Irish  people."  The  people  of  Ireland  have  never 
been  more  disloyal  than  they  are  at  the  present  day. 
In  the  early  days  of  the  South  African  war,  I  used  to 
watch  the  effect  of  the  announcement  of  British  defeats 
on  the  people  of  Dublin.  The  crowds  would  thrill  with 
excitement,  and  men,  radiant  with  delight,  would  stop 
in  the  streets  to  express  to  utter  strangers  the  pleasure 
that  the  news  gave  them.  To  them  these  Boer  victories 
seemed  to  herald  the  downfall  of  England. 

Yet  another  instance  of  anti-English  feeling  is  to  be 
found  in  the  reverence  which  Ireland  displays  for  the 
last  of  the  victims  in  her  cause,  Allen,  Larkin,  and 
O'Brien,  the  three  "  Manchester  Martyrs  "  who  were 
executed  in  1867,  in  consequence  of  the  fatal  results  of 
an  armed  attack  which  they  made  upon  a  prison-van 
containing  two  notable  Fenian  prisoners,  in  the  course 
of  which  Sergeant  Brett  was  accidentally  shot.  Allen, 
Larkin,  and  O'Brien  !  "Anarchists  !  "  someone  will  say. 
''Martyrs  !  "  replies  Ireland.  Patriots  sacrificed  after  a 
partial  and  prejudiced  trial,  like  common  murderers,  to 
appease  the  blood-fury  of  the  British  lion  !  Irishmen 
will  never  forget  the  words  spoken  to  the  judge  by  one 
of  the  prisoners  :    "  You  will  soon  send  us  before  God, 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT     179 

and  I  am  perfectly  prepared  to  go.  I  have  nothing  to 
regret,  or  to  retract,  or  take  back.  I  can  only  say,  '  God 
save  Ireland  !  '"  3 

Evidently  then,  Ireland  is  not  reconciled  to  England. 
Must  this  always  be  the  case  ?      Curiously  enough  this 
anti-English  feeling  is  excited  by  those  parties  whose  best 
interests  would  be  served  by  its  disappearance.      The 
English   Toiies   exasperate   the   Irish  by   contemptuous 
insults,  and  endeavour  to  compromise  them  by  treating 
any  act  of  friendliness  on  their  part  as  an  abandonment 
of  their  principles.     The  Unionist  "  loyalists  "  of  Ireland 
employ  their  "  loyalty  "  as  an  instrument  of  oppression 
in  such  a  fashion  as  to  associate  in  the  minds  of  the 
"  rebels  "  the  idea  of  "  loyalty  "  with  everything  that  is 
anti-patriotic  and  anti-national.      They  have  converted 
the  English  National  Anthem,  God  save  the  King,  into  a 
party  song,  which  forms  an  appropriate  pendant  to  To 
Hell  with  the  Pope,  and  means  Down  with  Ireland.     They 
seize  every  opportunity  to  provoke  the  Nationalists.     In 
1885,  the  Prince  of  Wales  came  over  to  Ireland  and  was 
received  with  respect  by  the  people.       Thereupon  the 
loyalists  shouted  with  joy  and  declared  that  Ireland  was 
at  last  reconciled  to  English  rule.      To  this  the  Irish 
responded  by  greeting  the  Prince  throughout  his  tour 
with  hisses,   black  flags,   and   scuffles   with  the   police. 
If  anti-English  feeling  in  Ireland  were  at  its  last  gasp  it 
could  not  fail  to  be  revived  by  the  tactics  of  the  Unionists. 

Yet  there  was  a  time,  not  long  ago,  when  this  hatred 
of  England  seemed  on  the  way  to  be  obliterated,  or  at 
least  greatly  diminished. 

This  was  when  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  followers  rallied 
to  the  Irish  side,  and  the  cause  of  Home  Rule  seemed  on 
the  high  road  to  success.  Ireland  began  to  believe  in  the 
justice  and  good  sense  of  England,  and  appeared  ready 
to  accept  the  Entente  Cordiale,  the  Union  of  Hearts  which 

3  The  revival  of  anti-English  feeling  is  particularly  marked  amongst 
the  young  men  of  the  present  day.  At  the  Conferring  of  Degrees  in 
the  Royal  University,  October,  1905,  the  students  hissed  the  (English) 
National  Anthem. 


i8o  POLITICAL  AND   SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

was  to  usher  in  a  new  era.  It  was  a  brief  dream,  which 
had  a  brutal  awakening.  Stricken  to  the  heart  037  the 
rejection  of  Home  Rule,  Ireland  learned  the  true  character 
of  that  British  democracy  in  whom  she  had  placed  her 
trust,  and  whom  she  now  saw,  deaf  to  her  voice,  turn 
away  and  plunge  into  the  abyss  of  Imperialism.  Even 
were  Home  Rule  granted  to-morrow  the  Entente  Cordiale 
would  not  be  restored  by  it.  Wider  experience  brings 
deeper  distrust  and  the  lost  opportunity  of  conciliation 
will  not  come  so  soon  again.  Born  out  of  distress  and 
oppression  as  it  is,  why  should  Irish  hatred  of  England 
die  out  until  the  last  traces  of  this  distress  and  oppression 
have  been  effaced  ?  As  G  rattan  truly  said,  "  As  equals 
we  shall  be  her  sincerest  friend,  as  anything  less  than 
her  equal  we  shall  be  her  bitterest  enemy." 

Irish  disloyalty  is  the  outcome  of  political  hostility  : 
it  is  the  rancour  of  the  conquered  against  the  conqueror, 
of  the  exploited  against  the  exploiter.  But  over  and 
above  politics  there  is  between  the  two  peoples  the  most 
pronounced  opposition  imaginable  from  a  psychological, 
social,  and  religious  point  of  view.  This  second  source  of 
hatred  reinforces  the  first,  and  it  is  amplified  and 
intensified  by  the  extremists,  the  Ultras  of  both  camps. 
The  Tories  are  blinded  by  their  hatred  of  everything 
Celtic  ;  whilst  to  the  Irish  irreconcilables  the  English  are  a 
mere  compound  of  vices,  full  of  sin  and  meat,  and  framed 
on  the  model  of  the  Pharisee  who  lifted  up  his  eyes  to 
heaven  and  said,  "  Lord,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am  not 
as  this  publican." 

We  shall  put  aside  both  these  extravagances  of  national 
pride.  Nevertheless,  it  is  obvious  that  a  people  like  the 
Irish,  idealistic  and  generous,  mobile  and  emotional,  ready 
to  sacrifice  the  real  to  the  ideal,  can  have  but  little 
sympathy  with  the  stolidity,  selfishness  and  commercial 
temper  of  the  British  "  nation  of  shopkeepers,"  or  above 
all  with  its  cant,  and  its  characteristic  faculty  of  eternally 
seeing  "  duty  "  where  its  interests  call  it.  May  not 
Ireland,  with  some  reason,  decline  to  be  attracted  by  a 


THE  NATIONAL  AND  ANTI-ENGLISH  SPIRIT     181 

social  system,  which,  in  the  words  of  Matthew  Arnold, 
"  ends  by  landing  modern  communities  in  the  possessor- 
ship  of  an  upper  class  materialised,  a  middle  class 
vulgarised,  a  lower  class  brutalised."  4  Ireland,  moreover, 
is  sensitive  and  sentimental  ;  and  she  resents  bitterly  the 
want  of  consideration  with  which  the  English,  rather, 
perhaps,  because  they  are  such  poor  psychologists  than 
through  any  lack  of  good-will,  regard  everything  that  is 
not  English.  "Their  temper,"  said  Burke,  "must  be 
managed  and  their  good  affections  cultivated."  This  is 
precisely  what  the  English  have  never  done,  and 
Ireland  most  of  all  has  suffered  at  their  hands.  "The 
Irish  quick-wittedness,"  writes  Matthew  Arnold  in  the 
same  essay,  "  sentiment,  keen  feeling  for  social  life  and 
manners,  demanded  something  which  this  hard  and 
imperfect  civilization  cannot   give  them." 

Indeed,  the  two  nations  are  so  fundamentally  different 
that  they  can  never  thoroughly  understand  each  other. 
Behind  Ireland's  historic  hatred  of  England  there  is  a 
profound  mental  and  moral  antagonism.  There  will  always 
be  Englishmen  who  will  despise  Irishmen,  and  there  will 
always  be  Irishmen  who  will  scorn  England,  and  will  say 
with  a  mingling  of  horror  and  pride  :  "No!  we  are  not 
English!" 

V. — Irishmen  and  France. 

Is  it  an  illusion  to  think  that  the  sympathy  which 
Ireland  has  always  manifested  towards  France,  and  which 
is  so  precious  to  France,  has  a  deeper  source  than  mere 
hatred  of  England  ?  It  does  not  spring  merely  from 
remembrance  of  the  hospitality  which  Irish  exiles  found 
in  France,  whether  in  the  service  of  the  Bourbons,  or  in 
the  armies  of  Napoleon.  Never  was  hospitality  paid  for 
at  such  a  price  ;  every  field  of  honour  was  stained  with 
the  blood  of  gallant  soldiers  who  had  fallen  under  the 
banner  of  the  Irish  Brigade.  There  is  between  Ireland 
and   France   a   certain   affinity   of  character,   a   certain 

4  Irish  Essays,  p.  6\. 


i82  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

likeness  of  qualities,  tendencies,  and,  let  us  add,  even 
defects,  the  outcome  in  all  probability  of  common  Celtic 
blood  and  similar  climatic  conditions.  "  The  Irish  are 
the  French  of  the  West,"  says  M.  Daryll  ;  "  we  feel  at 
once  that  they  are  our  first  cousins."  Priests  and 
peasants,  the  bourgeoisie  and  the  upper  classes,  all  alike  have 
a  place  in  their  hearts  for  our  beloved  and  unhappy  France. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  did  our  revolutions  of  1789  and 
1848  awaken  wider  reverberations  than  among  the  people 
of  Ireland  ;  and  nowhere  have  more  tears  been  shed 
over  our  reverses.  The  writer  of  these  lines  will  never 
forget  how  he  met  one  day,  amid  the  ruins  of  Murrisk 
Abbey,  a  Mayo  peasant  who,  after  a  few  words  on  other 
matters,  began  to  speak  of  France  and  French  affairs. 
His  gentle  voice  became  grave  as  he  talked  of  the  war 
of  '70  ;  one  might  have  thought  it  a  thing  that  had 
happened  yesterday,  a  calamity  that  had  fallen  on  his 
own  family,  as  he  said  with  profound  emotion  :  "  We 
know  all  about  it  !  "  A  few  years  ago,  one  of  my  friends, 
who  was  travelling  in  the  West  of  Ireland,  met  an  old 
countryman  who,  after  some  casual  remarks,  asked  in  a 
serious  tone  of  voice  :  "  Well,  sir,  are  the  French  getting 
strong  ?  "  In  1870-71  such  scenes  as  the  following 
were  to  be  met  with  in  Ireland.  A  peasant,  on  the  arrival 
of  the  weekly  newspapers,  would  sit  down  under  a  tree 
and,  putting  on  his  glasses,  proceed  to  read  aloud  the 
news  of  the  war  to  the  assembled  villagers,  whose  intense 
interest  might  be  guessed  from  the  silent  tears  trickling 
down  their  faces,  as  the  sad  story  was  unfolded. 

France  has  ever  been,  for  the  Irish,  "  the  only 
sympathetic  nation."  In  spite  of  our  reverses,  our 
intestine  struggles,  and  our  present  anti-Catholicism  (which 
is  bitterly  deplored)  Ireland  still  bends  her  eyes  and 
reaches  out  her  arms  towards  France.  France  is  to  her 
a  sort  of  Earthly  Paradise,  a  Land  of  the  Free,  a  chosen 
place  of  rural  democracy.  She  rejoices  in  our  joys,  weeps 
over  our  faults,  glories  in  our  glory,  and  will  ever  know 
us  as  "  The  Great  Nation." 


CHAPTER  IV.— THE   GOVERNMENT 

English  Unionists  will  tell  you  with  great  assurance^that 
the  Sister  Island  is  to-day  in  full  enjoyment  of  just  and 
impartial  government.  Ireland  possesses,  according  to 
them,  the  same  free  institutions  as  England.  Like  England 
she  has  her  representatives  in  the  Imperial  Parliament, 
which  governs  the  two  countries  in  precisely  the  same 
spirit.  Ireland  has  the  protection  of  habeas  corpus,  she 
has  trial  by  jury,  a  permanent  judiciary,  a  system  of 
popular  and  elective  local  government,  and  a  guarantee 
of  "  equality,  parity  and  simultaneity  "x  of  treatment  with 
Great  Britain  as  regards  legislation  ;  what  more  does  she 
want  ?  Nowhere  in  the  world  is  there  such  liberty  as  in 
Ireland  ;  the  Press  prints  what  it  pleases,  and  not  one 
newspaper  is  seized  or  prosecuted  in  a  twelve-month.  If 
the  Irish  keep  on  grumbling  it  is  merely  out  of  habit  or 
hatred.  Such  is  the  thesis  of  Unionism  :  we  have  now  to 
determine  whether  this  thesis  is  in  accord  with  the  facts. 


I. — The  Regime  of  the  Conquest, 

The  basis  of  the  political  system  of  Ireland  is  the  Act 
of  Union  of  1800.  This  Act,  as  we  have  already  pointed 
out,  did  not  effect  a  legal  assimilation  or  union  of  the  two 
countries  as  regards  either  the  civil  law,  the  judiciary,  or 
the  administration  It  merely  effected  a  fusion  of  the 
Parliaments,  or  rather  it  first  mutilated  the  Irish 
representation  and  then  engulfed  it  in  that  of  Great 
Britain.  No  Irish  majority,  however  great,  has  since  then 
been  anything  more  than  a  feeble  minority  at  Westminster. 

1  A  phrase  of  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  in  1886. 


i84  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

Ireland  found  herself  depressed  to  the  status  of  a  negligible 
fraction  of  the  Imperial  system,  and  her  right  of 
representation  reduced  to  a  nullity.  As  is  well  known, 
she  has  fought  incessantly  through  the  century  for  the 
restoration  of  her  lost  autonomy,  whether  by  repeal  of  the 
Act  of  Union,  or  by  the  establishment  of  an  Irish 
Parliament,  subject  to  the  supremacy  of  the  Imperial 
Parliament,  with  an  Irish  Executive  responsible  to  it. 
The  former  was  O'Connell's  Repeal  Movement,  the  latter 
is  the  modern  Home  Rule  Movement. 

The    Act    of    Union    left    Ireland    in    a    condition    of 
dependence,  ruled  absolutely  by  the  Garrison,  and  with 
all  the  old  abuses  hidden  under  a  mask  of  legality  and  of 
constitutional  forms.     The  Viceroy,  or  Lord  Lieutenant, 
remained  as  a  symbol  of  this  dependence.      A  Deputy  of 
the  Sovereign,  playing  at  sovereignty,  he  still  holds  levees, 
signs  proclamations,  receives,  presides,  inaugurates,  and 
maintains  his  quasi-royal  Court,  with  its  population  of 
snobs,    parasites,     and     parvenus.        The    Westminster 
Parliament  legislates,   it  is  true,   for  the  whole   United 
Kingdom,  but  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  laws  passed  by 
Great  Britain  do  not  apply  to  Ireland.     Ireland  has  her 
own  special  laws,  the  character  of  which  has  been  aptly 
conveyed  by  Chief  Baron  Palles,  one  of  the  greatest  of 
Irish  judges.     "  The  most  you  can  say  for  these  Acts,"  he 
once  observed,  "  is  that  they  are  good  enough  for  Ireland, 
but  if  they  had  existed  in  England  they  would  not  have 
been  allowed  to  remain   on  the   Statute   Book  for  six 
months."      Considered  thus  in  its   actual  working,   the 
Union  is  seen  to  be  a  Union  merely  for  purposes  of  parade. 
It  is,  in  Gladstone's  phrase,  a  "  paper-union,"  or,  to  adopt 
more  familiar  language,  a  pure  farce  and  fraud.      The 
real  truth  is  that  during  the  great  part  of  the  nineteenth 
century    Ireland    remained    under    the    regime    of    the 
Conquest.     She  was  governed  exclusively  in  the  interests 
of  the  Garrison.      Something  very  like  martial  law  was 
almost   a  matter   of   course,   and  coercion  was   all   but 
permanent.    Indeed,  there  were  87  Coercion  Acts  in  100 


THE  GOVERNMENT  185 

years.  The  severity  of  the  Acts,  especially  of  the  earlier, 
deserves  a  special  word.  The  Act  of  1800  removed  the 
decisions  of  the  Courts  Martial  from  any  sort  of  review 
by  the  ordinary  courts.  The  Act  of  18 17  gave  the  justices, 
in  other  words,  the  landlords,  jurisdiction  to  try  without 
appeal  and  to  condemn  to  seven  years'  transportation  any 
person  in  a  disturbed  district  who  was  adjudged  to  be 
"  idle  and  disorderly,"  especially  anyone  found  in 
possession  of  arms,  or  in  a  tavern  or  public-house  after 
nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  ;  and  these  provisions  were 
revived  in  the  middle  of  the  century  by  Sir  Robert  Peel.2 
At  the  uprise  of  Parnellism,  in  the  year  1881,  a  Liberal 
Government  passed  a  Coercion  Act  authorising  the 
Executive  to  commit  to  prison,  for  an  indefinite  period, 
and  without  trial,  any  person  who  could  be  regarded  as 
an  object  of  "  legitimate  suspicion. "3  An  Act  of  1882 
gave  the  police  in  disturbed  districts  power  to  make 
domiciliary  visits  at  night,  and  to  arrest  any  person  found 
outside  his  own  home.  It  further  established  special 
courts  of  summary  jurisdiction,  which  were  at  once 
popularly  christened,  by  a  reminiscence  of  Cromwellian 
days,  the  "Slaughter  Houses."  4  The  Conservatives  then 
tried  their  hand  at  Coercion.  In  1887  Mr.  Balfour  carried 
the  perpetual  Crimes  Act, 5  which,  although  less  drastic 
than  its  predecessors,  enabled  him  to  proceed  against  five 
thousand  persons  in  three  years.  People  were  sent  to 
prison  for  shouting  "  Hurrah  for  Gladstone  !  "  and  for 
whistling  "  Harvy  Duff  "  within  hearing  of  the  police.  A 
little  girl  of  twelve  was  convicted  of  having  obstructed 
the  Sheriff's  bailiffs  in  the  course  of  a  seizure,  and  a  little 

2  At  the  beginning  of  the  19th  century  whipping  was  still  the  punish- 
ment prescribed  in  many  Acts,  and  was  of  daily  application.  "  I 
have  known  men,"  said  O'Connell,  "  whipped  almost  to  death."  Cf. 
T.  P.  O'Connor,  Parnell  Movement,  Ch.  II.  C.  G.  Duffy,  Four  Years 
of  Irish  History,  p.  S  S -56. 

3  Act  of  March  2nd,  1881. 

4  Prevention  of  Crime  (Ireland)  Act,  July  12th,  1882. 

5  50  and  51  Vic,  c.  20  (July  19th,  1887).    Trial  by  Jury  was  superseded 
in  the  case  of  certain  offences  by  trial  by  Resident  Magistrate.      Th 
Lord  Lieutenant  was  given  power  to  proclaim  disturbed  districts  and 
dangerous  associations,  etc. 


i86         POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

boy  of  intimidation  ;  it  was  found  that  he  had  looked  at 
a  policeman  "with  a  humbugging  sort  of  a  smile  !  "  6  And 
every  measure  of  coercion  produced  the  same  effect  on 
Ireland,  the  effect  which  a  red  rag  produces  on  a  bull. 
The  victims  of  the  government  were  acclaimed  as  martyrs  ; 
political  prisoners  became  popular  heroes,  and  the  more 
notable  of  them  were  returned  to  Parliament. 

Coercion  finds  in  corruption  an  efficient  ally  in  the 
government  of  Ireland.  It  even  stoops  on  occasion, 
especially  from  1870  onwards,  to  the  use  of  conciliation — ■ 
sugar-plums  alternating  with  the  stick,  and  cuffs  with 
kisses.  Conciliation,  corruption,  coercion,  there  you  have 
the  three  ingredients  of  Irish  government.  They  call  for 
expert  hands  in  the  compounding,  and  more  than  one 
Chief  Secretary  has  lost  his  post  through  a  blunder  in 
the  quantities.  Governments  live  purely  from  hand  to 
mouth,  with  no  continuity  of  effort,  and  no  settled  aim. 
While  pandering  to  the  Nationalists  they  divide  their 
ranks,  and  sow  amongst  them  distrust  and  dissension. 
Appeal  is  made  to  the  appetite  of  the  Garrison  for  places 
and  honours.  The  trimmers  are  won  over  and  the  swash- 
bucklers kept  in  hand  by  that  species  of  gratitude  which 
has  been  described  as  an  expectation  of  favours  to  come. 
"  Political  jobbery  is  almost  as  flourishing  in  the  beginning 
of  the  twentieth  as  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  "7 
Public  policy  is  a  perpetual  see-saw,  and  Castle  govern- 
ment sways  from  side  to  side  under  the  pressure  of 
events,  satisfying  neither  the  "  rebels  "  nor  the 
"loyalists."  It  has  no  friends  save  those  who  hold  or 
hunger  for  places  ;  and  succeeds,  with  all  its  juggleries, 
only  in  being  at  the  same  time  very  tyrannical  and  very 
weak,  in  a  country  which  stands  pre-eminently  in  need  of 
a  government  at  once  just  and  strong,  and  strong  because 
just. 

6  Davitt,  Fall  of  Feudalism,  p.  526.  In  1902  there  was  another 
campaign  of  coercion,  although  on  a  much  reduced  scale.  In  1 5  years 
i,6oo  persons  were  condemned  to  the  degrading  punishment  of  hard 
labour  under  the  Act  of  1887. 

7  T.  W.  Russell,  Ireland  and  the  Empire,  p.  6. 


THE  GOVERNMENT  187 

II. — The    Castle.1 

The  centre  and  symbol  of  Government  is  Dublin 
Castle — that  veiled,  anonymous,  and  all-powerful 
institution,  housed  in  the  old  fortress,  which  stands 
solidly  on  high  ground  in  the  heart  of  the  capital,  half- 
screened  by  a  curtain  of  business-houses.  The  Castle  is 
a  world  in  itself,  a  city  within  the  city.  It  is  at  once  the 
Palace  of  the  Viceroy,  a  military  barrack,  the  seat  of 
administration,  and  the  office  of  the  secret  police  ;  and 
yet  in  the  days  of  Fenianism  the  Castle  was  full  of  their 
spies,  and  their  printing-presses  were  at  work  under  the 
very  shadow  of  its  walls.  Omnipotent  and  omniscient, 
the  Castle  rules  over  Ireland.  But  who  rules  over  the 
Castle  ? 

Officially  it  is  the  "  Lord  Lieutenant  and  Governor 
General  of  Ireland,"  assisted  by  a  Priw  Council.2  Or 
rather,  as  in  our  days  the  Lord  Lieutenant  is  as  a  rule 
a  figure-head  who  reigns  but  does  not  rule,  it  is  the  Chief 
Secretary  who  directs  the  Government  and  is  responsible 
for  it  to  Parliament.  Under  the  Chief  Secretary  there  is 
a  permanent  Under-Secretary,  an  Inspector-General  of 
Police,  and  a  whole  net-work  of  "  Boards."  These 
"  Boards  "  are  separate  and  semi-independent,  each  of 
them  having  its  own  President  and  its  own  special 
organization. 3  The  permanent  officials  who  control  the 
Boards  form  a  junta  of  twelve  or  fifteen,  all  men  of 
experience  and  capacity,  and  it  is  this  junta,  which, 
although  nominally  under  the  control  of  the  Irish 
Minister,  really  directs  the  machinery  of  the  Castle  and 
the  fortunes  of  Ireland. 

It  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  this  should  be  the 

1  Davitt,  Leaves  from  a  Prison  Diary,  1885,  Chap.  32.     Thorn,  etc. 

2  There  are  some  sixty  members  of  the  Privy  Council,  royal  Princes, 
retired  Chief  Secretaries,  Judges,  high  officials  and  the  like,  nominated 
by  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  It  is  a  consultative  body,  but  also  exercises 
certain  judicial  functions. 

3  Ireland  has,  in  the  words  of  a  popular  saying,  as  many  Boards  as 
would  make  her  coffin. 


i88  POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CONDITIONS 

case.  Imagine  the  situation  of  a  Chief  Secretary  newly 
appointed  to  his  most  difficult  office.  He  comes  to  Ireland 
full  of  prejudices  and  preconceptions,  and  like  most 
Englishmen,  excessively  ignorant  of  Irish  conditions. 

"  He  forgot  the  number  of  Chief  Secretaries,"  said  Lord 
Morris,  "  that  he  had  welcomed  to  Ireland.  They  all 
came  over  perfectly  ignorant,  but  three  hours  after  they 
had  landed  at  Kingstown  pier,  they  could  show  him  over 
his  estate  in  Spiddal." 

It  does  not  take  him  long  to  discover  that  he  is 
completely  in  the  hands  of  his  functionaries.  His 
Parliamentary  duties  keep  him  in  London  for  six  or  eight 
months  of  the  year  ;  and  he  is  forced  to  accept  his 
information  on  current  affairs  in  Ireland  from  the 
permanent  officials  of  the  Castle,  without  even  having  an 
opportunity  of  verifying  it,  and  to  rely  on  their  recom- 
mendations in  making  appointments.  The  representative 
of  Ireland  in  England,  and  of  England  in  Ireland,  he  is 
an  "  embarrassed  phantom,"  doomed  to  be  swept  away 
by  the  first  gust  of  political  change.  The  last  twenty 
years,  indeed,  have  seen  thirteen  Chief  Secretaries  come 
and  go  !  With  or  against  his  will  he  is  a  close  prisoner 
of  the  little,  irresponsible  coterie  which  forms  the  inner 
circle  of  Irish  administration.  Even  a  change  of  govern- 
ment in  England  is  not  a  change  of  government  in  Ireland. 
The  Chief  Secretary  goes,  but  the  permanent  officials 
remain.  The  case  of  the  clock  is  changed,  but  the 
mechanism  continues  as  before.4 

Their  position  owes  its  strength  not  merely  to  English 
ignorance  of  all  things  Irish  but  to  the  further  fact  that 
they  represent  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Protestant  Garrison 
who  are  the  bulwark  of  Unionism,  and  the  great  pillars 
of  English  rule  in  Ireland.  The  Irish  oligarchy  has 
retained  its  supremacy  in  the  Castle.  Dislodged  elsewhere, 
it  still  holds  the  central  fortress  of  administration,  and 
will  continue  to  hold  it  until  the  concession  of  autonomy 
to  Ireland  enables  the  country  to  re-mould  its  adminis- 

4  A  saying  of  Sir  Donald  MacFarlane. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  189 

trative  system  on  national  and  democratic  lines.  Among 
the  higher  functionaries  not  more  than  one  in  five  or  six 
is  a  Catholic  in  religion,  or  of  Nationalist  sympathies  in 
politics  ;  and  the  few  that  one  does  find  in  high  office 
are  more  "  loyal  "  than  the  king,  and  more  reactionary 
even  than  their  colleagues. 5  In  the  Privy  Council  there 
are  only  7  Catholics  as  against  50  Protestants.  Of  the 
18  Judges  of  the  High  Court  only  3  are  Catholics.  Such 
are  the  generals  and  officers  of  the  huge  army  of  officials 
nominated  and  controlled  by  the  Castle,  every  department 
exhibiting  the  Catholics  in  a  hopeless  minority.  Of 
1,272  Justices  of  the  Peace  appointed  between  1895  and 
1902  only  251  were  Catholics.  Of  the  68  Resident 
Magistrates  only  19  are  Catholics,  of  the  21  County 
Court  Judges  only  7,  of  the  37  County  Inspectors  of 
Police  only  4,  and  of  the  214  District  Inspectors  of  Police 
only  from  20  to  30.  And  the  Catholics,  be  it  noted,  form 
three-fourths  of  the  population.  When  we  come  to  the 
corporals  and  private  soldiers  of  administration,  we  do 
not,  of  course,  find  the  same  condition  of  things.  Tolerance 
is  freely  exercised  in  regard  to  the  positions  which  are 
not  thought  worth  disputing.  Thus,  nine  constables  in 
ten  are  Catholics,  and  the  same  proportion  would  hold 
in  the  lower  ranks  of  the  Civil  Service,  such  as  the  Post 
Office.  But  care  is  taken  to  bar  the  path  to  advancement 
against  these  minor  officials  who  are  Irish  in  blood  and 
sympathy.  The  well-paid  posts  are  reserved  for  Garrison 
Protestants  or  imported  Englishmen,  the  way  being  made 
clear  for  them  by  the  transfer  of  Irish  Civil  Servants  to 
the  lower  ranks  in  Great  Britain.  This  system  possesses 
the  double  advantage  of  dispeopling  Ireland  of  the  Irish, 
and  peopling  it  with  English  Protestants.6  Emancipated 
by  law  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago,  the  Irish  Catholics 

5  We  must  note  the  exceptional  case  of  Sir  Antony  MacDonnell,  who 
when  Under-Secretary,  showed  great  impartiality  and  genuine 
patriotism. 

6  The  example  given  by  government  is  followed  "  only  more  so  "  by 
the  banks,  railways  and  other  great  corporations.  Catholic  Nationalists 
have  of  late  made  a  vigorous  protest  against  this  policy  of  exclusiveness. 


igo        POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS. 

are  still  treated  as  enemies  and  suspects  in  their  own 
country,  and  are  excluded  from  all  the  most  important 
posts  in  the  Civil  Service.  The  Act  of  1829  remains  a 
dead  letter  ;  or  at  least  Emancipation,  while  registered 
on  the  Statute  Book,  has  not  yet  passed  into  the  custom 
and  practice  of  government.  Nationalist  and  Catholic  as 
she  is,  Ireland  still  lies  under  the  dominion  of  the 
Protestant  Ascendancy.  The  Garrison  has  lost  its 
monopoly  in  law  of  the  functions  of  the  State,  but 
retains  a  monopoly  in  fact.     Victoribus  spolia  ! 

This  bureaucracy  was,  indeed,  an  apt  instrument  in 
the  hands  of  the  political  oligarchy  which  till  lately  was 
supreme  in  Ireland,  for  it  was  essentially  Tory  and 
reactionary  in  character.  From  time  to  time  an  Irish 
Secretary  has  attempted  to  introduce  a  leaven  of 
Liberalism,  but  these  attempts  have  never  been  successful. 
Mr.  John  Morley  thought  to  effect  some  change  in  the 
political  atmosphere  of  the  Castle,  but  soon  found  this 
hope  entirely  illusory.  As  an  Irish  writer  has  said,  "  He 
came  to  Ireland  with  the  powers  of  a  Cromwell,  but  he 
was  Cromwell  in  the  midst  of  an  army  of  royalists."  7 
He  was  received  in  the  Castle  as  the  General  of  the  Iron- 
sides would  have  been  received  in  a  roomful  of  Cavaliers. 
The  regime  of  the  Conquest  was  too  firmly  established, 
and  the  tradition  of  coercion  too  deeply  stamped  into 
the  fabric,  to  admit  of  any  change.  Whether  the  Ministry 
of  the  day  be  Tory  or  Liberal  there  is  the  same  attitude 
of  autocratic  insolence  in  relation  to  the  mere  Irish,  the 
"  natives."  The  men  of  the  Castle  live  in  a  world  apart, 
in  an  atmosphere  of  privilege  and  prejudice,  entirely 
inaccessible  to  public  opinion.  Irish  opinion,  indeed,  is 
not  even  consulted  ;  and  the  Nationalist  leader  can  count 
upon  a  much  more  attentive  hearing  in  London  from  the 

The  excuse  put  forward  is  alleged  lack  of  Jenergy  on  the  part  of 
Catholics,  as  one  result,  it  is  said,  of  the  Penal  Laws,  or  indeed  of  their 
religion  itself,  and  lack  of  higher  education,  owing  to  the  absence  of  a 
proper  university.  Neither  of  these  defences  is  sufficient.  The  ancient 
anti-Catholic  and  anti-Irish  prejudice  is  still  very  strong  in  Ireland. 
7  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  Irish  Ideas,  p.  96' 


THE    GOVERNMENT  191 

Prime  Minister,  than  he  would  receive  from  a  Government 
clerk  in  Dublin.  The  needs  and  desires  of  the  people  are 
either  not  known  or  disregarded.  Even  when  Parliament 
has  passed  some  Irish  reform  or  other,  the  Castle  sets  to 
work  to  hamper  its  machinery,  and  delay  its  operation  by 
a  sheaf  of  rules  and  interpretations.  Every  concession 
to  Ireland  is  distorted  and  deformed  in  administra- 
tion.8 

These  considerations  explain  the  intense  hatred  with 
which  the  Castle  is  regarded  ;  everything  it  touches  turns 
bad  in  public  estimation.  It  is  not  merely  a  foreign 
power  ;  it  is  at  once  hostile,  anti-democratic,  mercenary 
and  irresponsible.  9  Within  the  last  thirty  years 
everything  else  has  changed  in  Ireland.  The  Established 
Church  is  gone,  and  with  it  many  of  the  official  privileges 
of  the  Garrison.  But  the  Castle  remains  unchanged,  not 
in  the  least  degree  adjusted  to  the  new  order  of  things. 
All  Ireland  is  in  protest  against  it,  the  Ultra-Unionists 
alone  excepted.  Public  opinion  is  in  arms  against  the 
overgrown  officialism,  which,  with  its  array  of  Boards, 
has  made  Irish  administration  the  most  costly  and  the 
least  efficient  in  the  world.10  The  Castle  must  be 
abolished,  say  the  Nationalists,  or  at  all  events  it  must 
be  brought  under  popular  control.  It  must  be  reformed, 
say  the  Unionists,  by  making  the  heads  of  the  departments 
responsible  to  Parliament.  But  is  it  possible  to  reform 
the  Castle  ?  "  Why  reform  the  Castle  ?"  as  Mr.  Morley 
asked  the  Unionists  not  long  ago.11  "  Is  not  the  Castle 
after  all  the  best  machine  that  has  ever  been  invented 
for  governing  a  country  against  its  will  ?" 

8  For  example,  in  the  administration  of  the  Land  Act  of  1903,  under 
Mr.  Wyndham,  secret  instructions  were  issued  to  the  Estates  Commis- 
sioners by  the  Castle  with  the  object  of  defeating  and  rendering  useless 
the  provisions  of  the  Act  with  regard  to  the  distribution  of  grass 
lands.     A  thousand  other  instances  might  be  adduced. 

9  The  only  control  to  which  the  Castle  Departments  are  subject 
appears  to  be  the  financial  control  of  the  Treasury. 

10  Cf.  Lord  Dunraven,  The  Crisis  in  Ireland,  1905. 
n  Speech  at  Manchester,  May  12th,  1902. 


192       POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 


III. — Local  Administration. 

One  great  reform,  however,  has  been  forced  on  the 
Castle,  and  by  a  Unionist  Ministry,  the  Local  Government 
Act  of  1898.1  The  effect  of  this  Act  has  been  to  introduce 
the  representative  principle  into  local  administration  and 
to  overthrow  the  old  oligarchy. 

Up  till  then  local  administration  in  Ireland,2  as  indeed 
in  England  till  1888,  had  been  essentially  aristocratic. 
Each  of  the  32  Irish  counties  had  a  Grand  Jury,  nominated 
by  the  Sheriff,  or  in  other  words  by  the  Castle,  from 
amongst  the  landlords  of  the  county,  Peers  alone  being 
excluded.  This  body,  under  the  direction  of  the  Judge 
of  Assize,  struck  the  rates,  and  raised  the  revenue  requisite 
for  local  services.  They  met  once  a  year  at  the  county 
town  ;  and  the  novels  of  Miss  Edgeworth,  now  almost 
forgotten,  give  us  a  vivid  picture  not  only  of  misdeeds 
and  malversations  on  the  part  of  these  strange  adminis- 
trators, but  also  of  their  pomp  and  circumstance.  The 
town  was  brilliantly  decorated  for  the  Judge's  visit,  and 
he  sat  at  a  sumptuous  dinner  with  the  Grand  Jury,  while, 
without,  the  condemned  prisoners  were  being  handed 
over  to  the  executioner  and  hanged.  This  corruption 
and  luxury  gradually  disappeared  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  and  the  Grand  Juries  were  brought  into  close 
dependence  upon  the  Castle.  In  1836  provision  was 
further  made  that  all  proposed  expenditure  must  first 
be  approved  by  a  Presentment  Sessions,  a  certain  number 
of  whose  members  were  elective  ;  but  the  change  was 
insignificant,  and  local  administration  remained  almost 
exclusively  in  the  hands  of  the  landlords.  The  state  of 
things  was  much  the  same  as  regards  the  relief  of  the 

1  61  and  62  Vic,  c.  $7  (August  12th,  1898).  Cf.  Annual  Reports 
of  the  Local  Government  Board.  O'Connor  Morris,  Present  Irish 
Questions,  1901,  p.  309. 

2  Cf.  J.  Flack,  Le  Gouvernement  local  de  l'Irlande,  Paris,  1889.  De 
Beaumont,  op.  cit.  I.,  272.  There  were,  however,  certain  differences 
between  the  two  countries,  especially  with  regard  to  the  function  of 
the  Grand  Jury. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  193 

poor,  and  the  medical  and  sanitary  services.  These 
functions  were  exercised  in  each  of  the  163  Poor  Law 
Unions  by  a  Board  of  Guardians,  consisting  in  part  of 
ex-officio  members  (Justices  of  the  Peace),  and  in  part  of 
representatives  elected  by  public  vote  on  a  restricted 
franchise.  As  for  the  towns  and  boroughs  the  "  Gentry  " 
continued  to  control  them  for  a  good  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  their  administration  was  so 
prolific  in  abuses  that  only  a  very  few  cities  were  granted 
even  a  restricted  franchise.  It  has  only  to  be  added  that 
politics  had  already  struck  root  here  and  there  in  Urban 
Councils  and  in  Boards  of  Guardians.  The  growth  has 
thriven,  and  these  bodies  are  to-day  centres  of  violent 
anti-English  demonstrations. 

A  very  real  revolution  was  effected  in  this  superannuated 
system  by  the  Act  of  1898.  The  Grand  Juries  cease  to 
exist  as  administrative  bodies. 3  Local  administration 
passes  into  the  hands  of  elected  Councils,  and  its  area  is 
divided  between  33  County  Councils  (to  which  must  be 
added  the  Councils  of  the  six  great  cities, 4  reconstructed 
on  the  same  model)  and  302  Urban  and  Rural  District 
Councils.  All  the  Councils  are  elected  on  a  wide  franchise, 
which  includes  women. 5  The  Castle,  functioning  through 
the  Local  Government  Board,  exercises  a  general  super- 
vision over  their  work.  It  is  the  exit  of  the  Garrison, 
and  the  entrance  of  the  people.  Everywhere,  except  in 
Ulster,  the  Nationalist  vote  secures  possession  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  seats,  leaving  only  a  small  minority  to 
the  landlords.  With  the  control  of  seats  there  passes 
as  a  corollary  the  control  of  the  patronage  for  positions, 
such  as  those  of  clerk,  workhouse  master,  rate  collector, 

3  The  Grand  Jury  retains  only  its  ]udicial  function,  which  was  the 
only  power  it  ever  possessed  in  England. 

4  The  six  County  Boroughs  are  Dublin,  Belfast,  Cork,  Derry,  Limerick 
and  Waterford. 

5  Clergymen  are  ineligible.  The  County  Councils  have  power  to 
send  delegates  to  the  General  Council  of  County  Councils,  a  body  which, 
although  it  possesses  little  legal  power,  is  in  its  very  institution  a  sort 
of  landmark  on  the  way  to  national  autonomy.  The  Separatists 
desire  to  make  it  into  a  National  Parliament,  and  to  withdraw  from 
the  Westminster  Parliament. 

O 


194       POLITICAL   AND   SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

dispensary  doctor,  and  the  like,  which  were  formerly 
retained  in  the  hands  of  the  Garrison,  and  from  which, 
even  at  present,  Catholics  are  rigorously  excluded  in  many 
parts  of  Ulster.  The  democracy  becomes  practically 
supreme  in  local  affairs,  under  the  supervision  of  a  central 
Board. 

Now,  what  has  been  the  record  of  the  Irish  democracy  ? 
Admittedly  the  Act  was  a  delicate  experiment  which 
imposed  a  very  severe  task  on  a  people,  deprived  by 
British  policy  of  any  earlier  training  in  political 
responsibility.  The  Cassandras  of  reaction  prophesied 
all  kinds  of  disaster.  Nothing  would  come  of  these  popular 
bodies,  they  said,  but  corruption,  wastefulness,  and  the 
exploitation  of  minorities.  These  gloomy  vaticinations 
have  been  belied  by  the  facts,  and  in  a  very  striking 
way  ;  for  the  success  of  the  new  order  is  conceded,  with 
certain  reserves,  even  by  hostile  Unionist  opinion  and 
by  the  Local  Government  Board  in  its  annual  Reports. 
There  have,  of  course,  been  many  blunders  due  to 
inexperience.  The  local  councils  delight  in  political 
resolutions,  and  anti-English  demonstrations.  Their 
meetings  are  often  noisy,  and  in  the  villages  the  councillors 
are  not  always  entirely  sober.  But  whether  peasants 
or  artisans,  they  have  a  very  keen  sense  of  the  line  that 
divides  excitement  from  business,  and  although  hampered 
by  an  excessive  complexity  of  rules  and  regulations,  they 
have  shown  themselves  better  administrators  than  the 
landlords.  Being  themselves  for  the  most  part  poor  they 
understand  the  value  of  money,  and  have  been  more 
economical  than  their  predecessors. 

"  Nowhere  in  Great  Britain,"  wrote  a  Unionist  lately, 
"  have  I  seen  local  bodies  taking  more  real  interest  in 
their  work." °       The   danger  of  the  future  is,   beyond 

6  Irish  Times,  November  18th,  1902.  It  is  not  a  rare  thing  to  find 
newly-created  elective  bodies  at  first  very  economical  and  afterwards 
very  extravagant.  E.g.  the  Algerian  delegations.  Certain  cities,  like 
Limerick,  Dublin,  etc.,  are  proverbial  for  bad  management.  Their 
Corporation  meetings  are  notorious  for  turbulence  and  empty  political 
demonstrations. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  195 

doubt,  favouritism  and  jobbery.  Even  at  present  there 
is  a  tendency  to  "  corner  "  offices  and  even  contracts 
for  the  members  of  this  or  that  political  league  ;  the 
custom  of  combinazione  is  widely  diffused  ;  everybody  is 
on  the  scent  for  places  for  his  friends  and  relatives  ;  and 
the  reign  of  rings  and  bosses  seems  to  be  opening.7  A 
strong  central  authority  is  needed  to  keep  these  tendencies 
in  check.  Unhappily  the  Local  Government  Board  is 
not  strong  but  merely  bureaucratic,  arbitrary,  narrow- 
minded  and  anti-national.  It  is  guilty  of  all  the  abuses 
of  authority,  and  is  filled  with  a  passion  for  directing  and 
complicating  everything.  Money  being  nothing  to  it,  it 
arranges  its  plans  on  the  same  large  and  stately  scale  as 
in  England,  and  forces  the  councils  to  extravagant 
expenditure  which  the  poverty  of  the  country  does  not 
justify.  In  fact,  its  despotic  and  irresponsible  arrogance 
makes  its  rule  as  intolerable  to  the  Unionists  of  Ulster 
as  to  the  Nationalists  of  the  South.8 

The  struggle  between  this  foreign  power  and  the  elected 
councils,  between  centralised  authority  and  popular 
representation,  must  end  fatally  for  the  one  or  the  other. 
Either  term  of  the  antithesis  must  be  suppressed  or 
subsumed  under  the  other.  In  other  words,  England 
will  find  herself  compelled  either  to  take  back  from  the 
Irish  what  she  has  already  given  them,  namely,  a  certain 
control  over  local  affairs,  or  to  concede  what  she  has  for 
a  century  refused,  namely,  some  part  in  the  management 
of  their  national  affairs.  Therein  lies  the  political 
significance  of  the  establishment  of  Local  Government  in 
Ireland.  The  experiment  must  needs  be  fruitful  in 
results.  It  gives  Ireland  one  reason  and  one  argument 
the  more  on  which  to  found  her  demand  for  autonomy  ; 
for  an  actual  experience  of  government  has  developed 
her  public  spirit  and  her  practical  sense,  and  has  trained 

7  The  gloomy  pictures  (somewhat  too  gloomy  indeed)  of  municipal 
corruption  painted  by  Edward  Martyn  in  A  Tale  of  a  Town  (1902), 
and  by  George  Moore  in  The  Bending  of  the  Bough,  refer  back  to  the 
period  before  1898. 

8  Cf.  Hansard,  May  24th,  1900,  and  August  9th,  1901. 


196        POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

up  a  corps  of  administrators.  For,  as  has  been  well  said, 
the  local  councils  are  the  primary  schools  of  freedom. 
Local  Government  has  given  Ireland  at  the  same  time 
a  new  weapon  for  the  enforcement  of  her  claims,  a  point 
of  support  and  a  lever  with  which  to  operate  against  the 
Castle,  and  a  permanent  organization  which  may  one 
day,  perhaps,  render  political  "  leagues  "  superfluous.  It 
has,  in  short,  increased  tenfold  the  political  power  of 
Ireland,  and  dislodged  England  fiom  one  of  her  most 
formidable  positions  in  the  Sister  Island. 


IV. — The  Police. 

England  meantime  retains  a  firm  hold  of  one  instrument 
of  government,  which  is,  perhaps,  the  most  necessary  to 
her  of  all,  the  police.1  It  is  very  doubtful  whether  the 
Constabulary  in  question  ought  to  be  called  a  police  force 
at  all.  It  consists  of  12,000  men,  or  rather  of  12,000 
soldiers,  armed  with  carbines  and  bayonets,  and  disposed 
through  the  country  in  a  thousand  or  fifteen  hundred 
fortified  posts.  These  "  police  stations  "  are  regular 
blockhouses,  situated  in  strong  strategic  positions,  and 
defended  by  iron  doors  and  shutters.  The  picture 
contrasts  strangely  with  that  popular  institution  of  Great 
Britain,  the  corpulent  and  legendary  "  bobby,"  with  his 
paternal  airs  and  his  readiness  to  oblige,  and  a  truncheon 
for  sole  symbol  of  authority  !  The  Constabulary  in 
Ireland  is  a  military  force,  an  army  of  occupation 
encamped  in  a  conquered  country.  It  is  a  supplementary 
corps  of  the  regular  army  which  is  stationed  in  Ireland 
as  a  main  guarantee  of  the  security  of  British  rule. 

The  Irish  police  force  differs  from  the  English  in  being 
an  imperial  service.  It  is  controlled  by  the  Castle,  and 
maintained  out  of  the  Imperial  Treasury  ;   but  the  annual 

1  Cf.  Comte  de  Franqueville,  Le  Système  Judiciaire  de  la  Grande 
Bretagne,  Paris,  1893.  Hansard,  May  4th,  1901  ;  March  1st  and  i4th, 
1902  ;    and  July  ioth,  1902. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  197 

charge  is,  of  course,  debited  to  Ireland,  and  the  burden 
falls  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Irish  tax-payer.  The  local 
bodies  which,  in  Great  Britain,  exercise  the  control  and 
bear  the  cost  of  the  police,2  are  charged  with  neither  of 
these  functions  in  Ireland.  This  does  not,  however, 
prevent  the  Castle  from  punishing  a  "  disturbed  district  " 
by  first  making  it  liable  for  half  the  cost  of  the  extra 
police  sent  there,  and  then  striking  a  levy  on  it  for  all 
non-accidental  injuries  to  persons  or  property.  This  is 
done  under  the  law  of  Compensation  for  Criminal 
Injuries,  and  is  the  source  of  great  abuse.3  Under  imperial 
control  the  Irish  police  force  has  increased  steadily,  both 
in  numbers  and  in  cost,  since  its  foundation  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel4  in  1836.  Ireland  has  one  constable  for  every  362 
inhabitants,  England  has  one  for  every  541,  Scotland  one 
for  every  885.  If  we  leave  out  of  count  the  two  capitals, 
London  and  Dublin,  we  find  that  while  the  cost  of  the 
English  police  is  2s.  3d.  per  head  of  the  population,  the 
figure  for  Ireland  is  6s.  yd.  The  police  in  Scotland  cost 
£400,000,  in  Ireland  £1,300,000.5  Does  this  mean  that 
there  is  a  greater  degree  of  criminality  in  Ireland  ?  The 
case  is  quite  the  contrary  ;  and  nothing  could  be  falser 
than  the  prejudice  which  paints  Ireland  as  a  pandemonium 


2.In  England  the  policejare^a^county  service  under  the  control  l'of^a 
joint  committee  of  Justices  of  the  Peace  and  County  Councillors. 
(De  Franqueville,  I.,  570). 

3  Compensation  is  awarded  at  the  expense  of  the  ratepayers  in  all 
such  cases  of  injuries  in  which  there  is  malice  or  presumption  of  malice. 
Claims  are  heard  before  the  County  Court  Judge,  sitting  without  a 
jury,  with  an  appeal  only  to  the  Assize  Judge.  Judicial  interpretation 
of  the  vague  term,  "  criminal  injuries  ,"  has  been  pressed  to  an 
extravagant  point.  If  a  few  Dublin  gamins  amuse  themselves  breaking 
windows  the  city  has  to  pay  compensation  to  the  owner  of  the  windows. 
In  England  the  principle  of  public  indemnification  is  conceded  only  in 
regard  to  damage  resulting  from  riot  or  unlawful  assembly.  The  police 
in  Ireland  are  awarded  large  sums  by  way  of  compensation  for  personal 
injuries.  In  1901  the  account  was  £14,000,  in  1902  £8,000,  in  1903 
£6,125.  Cf.  Grand  Jury  Act  (1836);  Malicious  Injuries  (Ireland) 
Acts  (1848  and  1853)  ;  Merchant  Shipping  Act  (1894),  sec.  515  ;  Local 
Government  (Ireland)  Act  (1898),  sec.  5. 

4  The  Irish  police  are  popularly  called  peelers.  In  1841,  with  a 
population  of  more  than  8  millions  there  were  7,400  police  ;  in  1901, 
with  a  population  of  4  J  millions,  there  were  12,000  police  (including 
the  1,000  men  of  the  Dublin  Metropolitan  Police). 

5  Thorn,  1903  ;    Hansard,  July  10th,  1902. 


io8        POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

of  brigands  and  assassins.  There  is  no  professional 
criminal  class  in  Ireland.  There  may  have  been  a 
considerable  volume  of  crime  during  the  agrarian  war, 
but  I  do  not  know  a  country  in  Europe  in  which  the 
figures  are  lower  in  normal  times.  In  1901,  for  instance, 
an  average  year,  there  were  in  England  38  convictions 
for  every  100,000  inhabitants,  in  Scotland  41,  and  in 
Ireland  only  27.  Every  year  sees  the  closing  of  some 
unused  prison,  and  at  the  Assizes,  as  often  as  not,  the 
Judge  receives  from  the  Sheriff  the  traditional  pair  of 
white  gloves  which  indicate  that  his  white  hands  will  not 
have  to  be  raised  in  passing  sentence  on  any  one. 

The  chief  business  of  the  Irish  police  is  to  uphold 
landlordism.  As  soon  as  a  case  of  agrarian  warfare  is 
reported,  the  police  occupy  the  district  with  their  net-work 
of  espionage  and  inquisition.  It  is  their  function  to 
attend  popular  demonstrations,  and  take  shorthand  notes 
of  the  speeches,  and,  when  the  meeting  is  arbitrarily 
proclaimed,  to  disperse  it,  batoning  the  recalcitrant  crowd, 
and,  by  preference,  Members  of  Parliament,  if  any  are 
present.6  The  police  also  "  protect  "  persons  boycotted 
or  intimidated,  landlords,  agents,  grabbers  or  land- 
thieves,  and  the  like.  These  latter  constitute  quite  a 
special  class  in  the  countryside.  Sometimes  the  protection 
is  intermittent  by  means  of  rounds  and  patrols,  sometimes 
permanent  by  means  of  police-huts  close  to  the  house  of 
the  "patient,"  the  latter  being  forbidden  to  go  anywhere 
without  his  escort.  Some  hundreds  of  persons  are 
"  protected  "  in  this  way  every  year  ;  the  number  has 
sometimes  exceeded  a  thousand,  and  there  is  an  instance 
of  one  man  who  was  under  police  protection  for  twenty 
years  !  Night  and  day  the  police  are  at  the  disposition 
of  the  landlords  to  intimidate  the  peasants,  or  to  lend 
military  support  to  seizures  and  evictions.  However 
cruel  and  inhuman,  even  in  the  opinion  of  the  Castle,  the 

6  In  1889,  at  Ennis  a  policeman  begged  pardon  for  batoning  an  Irish 
Times  reporter  whom  he  mistook  for  a  Member  of  Parliament  !  (N. 
MacDonagh,  The  Book  of  Parliament,  1897). 


THE    GOVERNMENT  199 

"  legal  "  operations  may  be  for  which  police  assistance  is 
demanded,  the  Castle  has  no  right  to  refuse  this  assistance. 
Such  is  the  jurisprudence  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice.7 
Is  it  matter  for  astonishment  to  find  Irishmen  willing 
to  adopt  the  trade  of  protectors  of  landlordism,  the 
Castle,  and  the  whole  English  system  in  Ireland,  in  such 
numbers  that  the  rank  and  file  of  the  police  are  in  great 
part  composed  of  the  sons  of  Catholic  and  Nationalist 
peasants  ?  The  Extremists  loudly  denounce  these 
"  janissaries  "  of  Ireland,  call  for  their  condemnation  by 
public  opinion,  and  declare  that  there  never  was  a 
conquered  country  that  iurnished  its  conquerors  with  such 
an  army  of  mercenaries.  On  the  other  hand,  the  bulk 
of  the  people,  who  have  been  taught  by  slavery,  poverty, 
and  the  mere  necessities  of  life  to  temper  their  anti- 
English  feeling  with  a  certain  leaven  of  practical 
opportunism,  show  no  great  anger  against  the  police  for 
"  taking  service  under  the  oppressor."  "  If  our  sons  did 
not  join,"  they  say,  "  would  not  England  at  once  import 
twelve  thousand  Englishmen  to  do  the  work  ?  In  that 
case  we  should  only  have  helped  to  Anglicise  and 
Protestantise  Ireland  a  little  more."  In  fact  if  people 
have  no  hesitation  about  denouncing  publicly  the  "  Castle 
police  "  the  individual  constables  are  not  regarded  with 
any  very  severe  eye.  They  are,  moreover,  for  the  most 
part,  honest  fellows,  sober  and  disciplined,  although 
characterised  by  certain  traits  of  authoritarian  brutality, 
impressed  on  them  by  long  servitude,  accentuated  by  the 
fighting  temper  of  the  country,  and  aggravated  most  of 
all  by  the  influence  of  the  officers.  It  must  be  said  that 
the  spirit  with  which  the  police  are  inspired  by  those  in 
command  is  one  of  a  deplorable  and  arbitrary  provoca- 
tiveness.  Is  it  necessarv  to  recall  certain  orders  issued 
from  the  Castle  in  times  of  trouble,  the  "  Don't  hesitate  to 
shoot,"  of  1887,8  or  Forster's  instructions  with  regard  to 

7  It  over-ruled  Sir  M.  Hicks  Beach  on  this  point  in  1886,  and  Mr. 
John  Morley  in  1893.     The  former  was  Conservative  Chief  Secretary  ! 

8  Issued  in  1887  under  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour.      A  similar  instruction 
had  been  issued  in  1882.     (Annual  Register,  1882,  p.  187). 


200        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

the  use  of  buckshot  ?  9  Even  in  normal  times  the  police 
are  excited  beyond  the  bounds  of  prudence  ;  there  is  a 
continual  demand  tor  "incidents,"  for  Ireland  must  not, 
it  appears,  be  tranquil  !  It  is  this  which  gives  rise  to 
such  frequent  scenes  of  police  violence,  dispersals  of 
meetings,  and  baton-charges  on  inoffensive  crowds  which 
offer  such  a  striking  contrast  to  the  patience  and  self- 
restraint  of  the  police  in  England.  There  are  unhappily 
other  causes  of  a  graver  character.  Ninety-nine  out.  of 
every  hundred  constables  are  honest  fellows.  But  the 
hundredth  is  a  scoundrel  who,  seeing  that  he  has  every- 
thing to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose  by  "  incidents," 
provokes  or  invents  such  "incidents"  and  sometimes 
sends  innocent  persons  to  prison  for  them.  One  Talbot, 
for  instance,  in  County  Tipperary,  induced  young  men  to 
join  secret  societies  so  that  he  might  afterwards  have  the 
pleasure  of  "  informing  "  against  them.  Chief  Constable 
Whelehan,  through  the  medium  of  an  accomplice,  incited 
a  gang  of  evil-doers  to  make  an  attack  on  a  house  at 
night,  and  then  surprised  them  in  the  act.  His  colleague, 
Sergeant  Sullivan,  attempted  the  same  manœuvre  at 
Westpoit  in  1902.  As  for  Sergeant  Sheridan,  he  went 
still  further.  Aided  by  two  or  three  accomplices,  he  set 
fire  to  haggards,  and  killed  or  mutilated  cattle,  and  then 
proceeded  to  arrest  for  these  crimes  innocent  persons 
whom  he  succeeded  in  sending  to  prison  or  to  penal 
servitude.  Whenever  Sheridan  was  moved  to  a  new  post 
there  was  an  increase  of  crime,  or  at  least  of  arrests  for 
crime,  for  which  he  was  commended.  In  1901  all  was 
discovered,  and  Sheridan  fled  the  country  before  the 
issue  of  a  warrant  against  him.10  What  are  we  to  say  of  a 
government  which,  while  professing  to  be  the  guardian, 


9  He  was  called  after  it  Buckshot  Forster. 

10  The  Government  did  not  dare  to  prosecute  Sheridan,  for  fear,  as 
it  is  said,  of  revelations.  He  was  allowed  to  quit  the  country,  and 
two  of  his  accomplices  and  accusers  left  the  service  with  "  compassionate 
allowances  "  of  £50  and  ^200  respectively  (more,  that  is  to  say,  than 
Sheridan's  victims  received  by  way  of  compensation).  See  Hansard, 
July  24th,  1902,  and  October  20th,  1902. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  201 

and  the  sole  guardian,  of  "law  and  order,"  covers  away 
such  base  scandals  under  the  cloak  of  "  law  and  order  " 
as  to  produce  a  state  of  affairs  which,  in  the  words  of  a 
recent  English  writer,  is  like  a  "  glance  into  Hell  ?  " 
Could  such  scandals  arise  at  all  if  those  who  are  charged 
with  the  administration  of  justice  did  their  duty  ? 


V. — Justice  :  The  Lower  Courts. 

The  legal  system  of  Ireland,  looked  at  from  the  outside 
and  from  a  distance,  seems  a  very  faithful  copy  of  the 
legal  system  of  England.  It  is  apparently  based  on  the 
same  guiding  principles  and  exhibits  the  same  general 
traits.  The  judges  of  the  High  Court,  rather  few  in 
number,  enjoying  handsome  salaries  and  not  removable 
by  the  Government,  exercise  a  preponderating  influence. 
The  judge  sits  alone  in  a  great  many  cases  ;  there  is  no 
public  department  charged  with  the  direction  of  civil 
actions,  and  in  criminal  proceedings  direct  prosecution 
at  the  suit  of  an  individual  is  always  possible.  The  jury 
must  be  unanimous  in  its  verdict,  and  is  employed  in 
many  matters  which,  in  France,  would  be  dealt  with 
summarily  by  a  Court  of  Correction.  A  jury  is  sworn 
in  a  civil  cause  if  the  parties  think  it  worth  while  ;  there 
are  no  "  tribunaux  administratifs  "  ;  law  is,  on  the  whole, 

expensive.1 The    entire     system    seems    at  first 

sight  closely  modelled  on  that  of  Great  Britain,  but 
when  you  look  more  intimately  into  its  working  it  turns 
out  to  be  not  a  copy  but  a  sufficiently  gross  caricature. 
It  is  another  proof  that  the  best  institutions  in  the  world 
are  worth  only  as  much  as  the  men  who  direct  them,  and 
that  laws  are  of  very  little  value  unless  they  are  supported 
by  custom  and  public  practice. 

Of  all  the  judicial  institutions  of  Great  Britain  the 
most  original  and  characteristic  is  the  Justice  of  the  Pc  ace, 

1  Cf.  Comte  De  Franqueville,  Le  Système  Judiciaire  de  la  Grande- 
Bretagne,  Paris,  1893,  IL,  p.  621  to  639. 


202       POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

of  whom  England  is  particularly  proud.  Criminal  justice 
in  all  minor  matters  is  entrusted,  except  in  the  large 
towns,  to  these  unpaid  magistrates,  who  are  appointed 
by  the  Lord  Chancellor,  and  are,  for  the  most  part, 
landowners,  great  or  small.2  If  the  feudal  system  has 
not  in  England  prevented  a  landlord  from  being  an 
impartial  judge  it  is  because  of  England's  strong  sense 
of  national  unity,  and  her  tradition  of  public  spirit  and 
service.  In  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  the  landlords,  as 
the  descendants  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  spoilers,  are  separated 
from  the  people  by  a  threefold  barrier,  historical,  political 
and  religious.  Whether  he  be  landlord  or  agent,  the 
Irish  Justice  of  the  Peace  is  apt  to  exhibit  undue 
harshness  towards  a  Nationalist,  and  in  Ulster,  at  any 
rate,  undue  favouritism  towards  an  Orange  delinquent. 
Selected  from  a  very  small  class,  and  for  reasons  of 
politics,  he  often  shows  a  great  lack  of  professional 
capacity.3  "  If  you  find  a  magistrate  able  to  state  a  case," 
said  Baron  Dowse,  "  you  ought  to  send  him  to  the  British 
Museum  !  You  might  as  well  ask  them  to  write  a  Greek 
ode."  4  Absenteeism,  that  special  plague  of  the  Irish 
gentry,  raises  a  further  obstacle  to  the  due  discharge  of 
the  judicial  function  which  is  so  dear  to  the  English 
country  gentleman.  They  refuse  to  serve,  or  they  serve 
badly  ;  and  as  a  consequence  it  has  been  found  necessary 
to  strengthen  the  Irish  Justices  of  the  Peace  by  tutors 
and  deputies  unknown  in  England.  At  Quarter  Sessions 
the  County  Court  Judge  of  the  district,  while  nominally 
acting  only  as  Chairman,  in  reality  does  all  the  work. 
For  Petty  Sessions  the  Lord  Lieutenant  has  the  right  to 
appoints  and  in  fact  does  appoint  where  he  thinks 
necessary,  stipendiary  and  removable  Resident  Magistrates 

2  Chairmen  of  County  and  Rural  District  Councils  are  ex-ofp,cio 
Justices  of  the  Peace.  There  are  more  than  5,000  "  J.P.'s  "  in  Ireland, 
the  landlords  being  in  a  great  majority. 

3  In  May,  1904,  at  Ballinasloe  Petty  Sessions,  two  women  were  sent 
to  jail  for  a  month  with  hard  labour  for  the  theft  of  a  sack  of  turf. 
{Hansard,  May  24th,  1904.     Answer  to  a  question  of  Mr.  John  Roche). 

4  Hansard,  July  5th,  1888. 

5  Constabulary  Act  of  1836  (6  and  7  William  IV.,  c.  13). 


THE    GOVERNMENT  203 

who,  whether  they  sit  alone  or  with  the  Justices  of  the 
Peace,  really  control  the  courts  of  summary  jurisdiction. 
These  Resident  Magistrates,  wholly  dependent  on  the 
Government,  like  our  French  juges  de  paix,  but  endowed 
with  much  wider  powers — they  can  inflict  a  sentence  of 
six  months'  imprisonment — constitute  an  entirely  foreign 
element  in  the  magistracy  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The 
exception  made  in  their  case  to  the  great  principle  of 
judicial  independence  appears  all  the  more  deplorable,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  they  are  really  police  officers  as 
well  as  magistrates.  For  the  most  part  they  are  retired  police 
inspectors,  military  officers,  or  simply  sons  of  landlords 
and  government  officials,  all  anti-Nationalist  in  feeling 
and  of  very  questionable  competence.6  As  magistrates 
they  have  the  authority  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  to  direct 
all  the  operations  of  the  police.  This  is  the  sorry  pass 
to  which  the  great  principle  of  the  separation  of  powers 
has  come  in  Ireland  ;  and  it  need  hardly  be  said  that 
in  times  of  disturbance  the  system  gives  rise  to  the 
greatest  scandals.  In  1882  Mr.  Clifford  Lloyd,  on  arriving 
in  Kilmallock,  started  to  thrash,  with  his  stick,  people 
who  were  not  "moving  along"  quickly  enough!  To 
send  such  a  man  into  a  disturbed  district,  was  assuredly, 
as  one  of  his  colleagues  declared,  to  provoke  bloodshed. 
In  1887,  Mr.  Roche,  at  Tralee,  sentenced  a  political 
"  agitator"  to  six  months'  imprisonment,  and  when  the 
people  cheered  the  prisoner,  ordered  a  police  charge  on 
the  instant.  In  the  same  year  he  attended  en  amateur 
the  famous  Vandeleur  evictions  ;  and,  the  operations 
being  concluded,  had  those  who  resisted  eviction  brought 
before  him,  tried  them,  seated  on  a  wall  with  his  hat  on 

6  Major  Rolleston  called  in  question  on  one  occasion  the  legal  principle 
that  a  prisoner  should  be  presumed  to  be  innocent  until  proved  guilty. 
Major  Traill  explained,  by  way  of  excuse,  that  he  had  had  no  "  legal 
training  "  !  (T.  P.  O'Connor,  The  Pamell  Movement,  chs.  16  and  11). 
The  Government  did  not  exercise  any  very  rigid  scrutiny  of  candidates 
for  the  Resident  Magistracy.  Among  the  many  "  undesirables  " 
appointed  were  a  former  officer,  who  had  been  dismissed  his  regiment, 
an  official  who  had  been  dismissed  from  a  post  in  the  Birmingham  police, 
and  a  former  captain  of  infantry  from  the  Cape,  who  had  been  hunted 
for  breach  of  trust. 


204        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

his  head,  and  sent  them  straight  to  prison.  The  sentences 
in  these  cases  were  determined,  not  by  the  gravity  of  the 
offence,  but  by  the  "need  for  making  examples."  In 
1888,  in  County  Clare,  certain  peasants  were  sent  to  jail 
for  from  two  to  four  months  for  refusing  to  sell  turf  to 
the  police.7  In  1902  members  of  the  United  Irish  League 
received  sentences  of  great  harshness  for  attempts  at 
'intimidation"  which  had  been  without  effect; 
journalists  for  articles  which  were,  perhaps,  somewhat 
heated  but  quite  geneial  in  their  terms  and  not  directed 
against  any  individual  ;  simple  peasants  for  having 
spontaneously  and  without  violence  "boycotted"  a 
grazier  in  the  market,  or  hissed  a  grabber.  Two  Members 
of  Parliament  were,  in  the  same  year,  sent  to  prison  for 
three  and  four  months  respectively  for  having  at  a 
meeting  at  Caltra,  in  County  Galway,  conspired  with 
divers  other  persons  unknown,  illegally  to  compel  divers 
person  unknown  to  surrender  divers  lands  unknown,  and 
incited  divers  other  persons  unknown,  to  do  likewise  ! 

There  was  never  a  speech  delivered  in  Ireland  on  the 
land  question  but  would  come  within  the  scope  of  such 
an  indictment.  Instances  of  vindictive  severity  could  be 
multiplied.  During  the  Coercion  crisis  of  1901-2  the 
Resident  Magistrates  took  to  increasing  their  sentences 
for  political  offences  by  the  addition  of  hard  labour.  This 
meant  three  days  a  month  on  a  diet  of  bread  and  water 
and  fifteen  nights  on  the  plank  bed  ;  and  the  sentence 
carried  with  it  five  years'  disqualification  for  membership 
of  the  local  Councils.  In  1887  and  1888  the  Resident 
Magistrates,  in  order  to  deprive  their  victims  of  the  right 
of  appeal — allowable  only  when  the  sentence  exceeded 
one  month — adopted  the  practice  of  giving  cumulative 
sentences  of  one  month  each  on  several  different  counts. 
Such  were  the  men  to  whom  was  entrusted  the  administra- 
tion of  such  a  law  as  the  Coercion  Act.  Is  it  a  matter 
for  wonder  that  in  the  eyes  of  the  Irish  people  these 
judges  were  no  judges  at  all,  but  mere  agents  of  the 

7  Annual  Register,  1888,  p.  100,  121. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  205 

Castle,  and  that  the  "  justice  "  which  they  dispensed  was 
regarded  as  a  mere  legal  farce  ? 

But  the  strangest  and  most  abused  power  of  all  was 
that  which  they  exercised  under  the  Common  Law, 
rendered  explicit  in  a  Statute  of  the  year  1361  (34  Edward 
III.).  This  Act  gives  to  all  magistrates,  and  by 
consequence,  of  course  to  Resident  Magistrates,  the  power 
to  require  bail  to  be  of  good  behaviour  from  "  all  that 
be  not  of  good  fame,"8  and  if  bail  be  refused  to  send  the 
person  summoned  to  prison  for  a  period  of  time  which 
is  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  magistrate.  There  is  no 
jury,  and  no  right  of  appeal  ;  it  is  not  necessary  for  the 
Crown,  nor  competent  for  the  person  summoned  to  produce 
witnesses,  for,  as  the  legal  writers  say,  it  is  a  question 
not  of  punishment  but  of  prevention.  It  is  the  alter- 
native, as  the  phrase  runs  in  Ireland,  of  "  Bail  "  or  "Jail." 
This  power  is  possessed,  it  is  true,  by  magistrates  in 
England,  and  is  exercised  by  them  in  about  a  thousand 
cases  in  the  course  of  a  twelvemonth. 9  But  in  England 
it  is  used  only  against  vagabonds,  persons  who  can  give 
no  account  of  themselves  and  are  a  menace  to  the  public 
peace.  In  Ireland  the  Resident  Magistrates  use  it  as  a 
weapon  against  politicians,  members  of  the  League,  and 
popular  orators.  Moreover,  they  add  a  rule  of  bail  to 
ordinary  sentences — a  thing  which  is  never  done  in 
England — so  that  a  prisoner,  if  he  refuses  to  find  bail,  has 
his  sentence  doubled.  More  amazing  still,  the  power  of 
"  Bail  "  or  "Jail  "  is  enforced  against  defendants  who  have 
been  found  innocent  of  charges  preferred  against  them. 
One  and  the  same  sentence  declares  that  they  are  not 
guilty  of  any  offence,  and  orders  them  to  find  bail  to  be 
of  good  conduct  for  the  future  !  It  is  in  truth,  as  English 
Liberals  declared  in  Parliament  when  these  facts  were 

8  The  "  not"  was  by  a  curious  accident  omitted  from  the  old  Statute. 
The  Act  of  1 36 1  was  extended  to  Ireland  ipso  facto  by  Poynings'  Law 
in  149s.      Cf.  Law  Times,  June  28th,  1902.      Comte  De  Franqueville 
II.,  28b. 

9  Between  1893  and  1901  there  were  9,434  cases  in  England,  6,398 
in  Ireland.     {Hansard,  June  25th,  1902). 


2o6       POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 

made  known  in  debate,  a  caricature  of  justice,  a  travesty 
of  law  ;    summum  jus  summa  injuria.10 


VI. — The  Judges  of  the  Superior  Courts. 

From  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  the  Resident 
Magistrate  we  pass  to  the  County  Courts  and  the  High 
Court.  Here  at  least  we  find  judges,  in  the  real  sense 
of  the  word,  invested,  as  in  England,  with  a  large  measure 
of  dignity  and  independence,  invested  also  with  very 
important  powers  and  responsibilities  in  virtue  of  that 
"  glorious  uncertainty  of  the  law  "  which  affords  the 
Anglo-Saxon  such  profound  gratification.  Let  us  hasten 
to  say,  however,  that  the  English  judiciary  differs  very 
widely  from  the  Irish  judiciary  in  origin  and  consequently 
in  character.  In  England  politicians  are  certainly  not 
without  saying  their  word  with  regard  to  appointments. 
But  a  judge  is  chosen  as  a  settled  rule  only  from  among 
the  leaders  of  the  Bar,  and  the  moment  he  assumes  his 
high  office  he  puts  behind  him  party  differences.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  body  of  men  so 
high  in  character,  so  superior  to  prejudice  and  passion, 
and  so  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  impartiality  as 
the  English  Bench.  Politics,  on  the  contrary,  play  the 
chief  rôle  in  judicial  appointments  in  Ireland.  Whether 
they  are  chosen  from  the  ranks  of  the  Irish  Unionist 
Party  in  Parliament,  or  from  the  Crown  Prosecutors  at 
the  Bar,1  they  obtain  advancement  as  the  price  of  services 

10  Hansard,  March  13th,  1902.  The  magistrate's  power  of  "  Bail  or 
Jail  "  is  also  possessed  a  fortiori  by  the  King's  Bench,  though  it  adds 
little  to  the  dignity  of  that  Court.  It  has  been  exercised  by  the  King's 
Bench  in  three  cases  during  the  last  twenty-five  years: — (1)  R.  v. 
Davitt,  Healy  and  Quinn  in  1882  ;  (2)  R.  v.  Dillon,  1886  (Bail  in 
^2,000  or  six  months  imprisonment);  (3)  R.  v.  William  Redmond  and 
Lynam  in  1902. 

1  Contrary  to  English  practice  the  Crown  in  Ireland  has  on  every 
Circuit  its  titular  and  permanent  Crown  Counsel  or  Crown  Prosecutor. 
Nomination  to  this  position  is  the  first  step  up  in  every  successful 
legal  career  ;  but,  to  secure  it,  a  repudiation  of  all  national  and  patriotic 
ideas  is  necessary.  This  is  a  repudiation  which  many  of  the  most 
talented  young  men  refuse  to  make,  although  they  know  that  they 
thereby  close  against  themselves  the  path  of  promotion. 


THE   GOVERNMENT  207 

rendered  or  pledges  given  to  the  Castle  ;  Judgeships 
are  part  of  the  spoils  of  political  victory.2  This  does 
not  mean  that  there  are  not  to  be  found  among  them 
men  of  high  moral  worth  and  great  conscientiousness. 
Such  men  they  have  always  had  from  Fox  and  Fletcher 
who,  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  publicly 
denounced  the  unjust  treatment  of  Ireland,  to  Baron 
Fitzgerald,  who,  in  1881,  retired  rather  than  join  in 
enforcing  Mr.  Gladstone's  Coercion  Act.  To-day  people 
in  Ireland  tell  you  that  a  dozen  judges  of  the  stamp  of 
Chief  Baron  Palles  would  be  of  greater  value  to  the 
country  than  any  possible  legislative  reforms.  The 
decencies  and  amenities  of  life  have  advanced  greatly  in 
Irish  courts  of  law.  Public  opinion  would  not  now  endure 
ermined  brutes  like  Norbury,  violent  partisans  like  Chief 
Justice  Pennefeather  who  tried  O'Connell,  or  fanatical 
Calvinists  like  Lefroy  who  used  the  Bench  as  a  pulpit 
of  proselytism.  Nor  are  there  to  be  found  any  longer 
eccentrics  like  Baron  Smith,  who  was  accustomed  to  hold 
his  court  by  candle-light,  or  incompetents  like  the  Judge 
Day  of  whom  Curran  said  that  his  attempts  to  understand 
a  law  point  "  resembled  an  attempt  to  open  an  oyster 
with  a  rolling-pin." 

But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  even  now  the  Irish  judges, 
chosen  as  they  are  from  a  close  oligarchy,  do  not  succeed 
very  well  in  forgetting  their  prejudices — racial,  religious, 
and  political — on  accession  to  office,  and  that  their 
judgments  often  bear  the  trace  of  unconscious  bias. 
Their  rectitude,  uprightness,  and  personal  honour  are  not 
in  question,  but  perfect  impartiality  is  a  condition  to 
which  they  do  not  often  attain.  Their  minds  have  been, 
as  one  might  say,  folded  in  such  deep  crinkles  of 
partizanship  that  it  is  not  possible  for  them  to  become 
on  the  morrow  of  promotion,  neutral  and  indifferent 
umpires  of  law,  capable  of  commanding  confidence  and  of 

2  A  prominent  advocate  in  England  loses  heavily,  an  advocate  in 
Ireland  gains  heavily,  in  point  of  income  by  elevation  from  the  Bar 
to  the  Bench.     Cf.  Comte  De  Franqueville,  p.  378,  391. 


208        POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

justifying  it.  It  must  be  added  that  as  things  stand  in 
Ireland  promotion  does  not  carry  them  out  of  politics  ; 
they  do  not  cease  to  attend  the  Viceroy's  Court  at  the 
Castle,  and  many  of  them,  as  members  of  the  Privy 
Council,  take  a  direct  share  in  the  conduct  of  public 
affairs.  The  grip  of  politics  upon  them  never  lessens. 
They  deliver  attacks  by  times  from  the  Bench  on  the 
Irish  Parliamentary  Party  and  the  Nationalist  Leagues. 
In  1890  at  Galway  Assizes,  for  instance,  Judge  Harrison 
asked  in  open  court  why  the  loyalists  of  Ireland  had  not 
had  recourse  to  lynch  law.  In  1880  Judge  May,  who 
was  to  try  Parnell,  delivered  before  the  trial  such  violent 
diatiibes  against  the  Nationalist  leader  as  to  rind  himself 
compelled  by  the  consequent  public  protests  to  take  no 
part  in  the  trial.  A  certain  County  Court  Judge,  lately- 
deceased,  made  a  speciality  of  assailing  in  the  Times, 
and,  in  the  great  English  reviews,  the  Irish  policy  of  the 
Government.  He  was  accustomed,  both  in  these  journals 
and  from  the  Judicial  Bench,  to  denounce  as  "  immoral 
and  confiscatory  "  the  agrarian  laws  which  it  was  his 
dutv  to  administer.  It  is  a  common  practice  with  Judges 
at  Assizes  to  deliver  harangues  to  the  Grand  Juries 
representing  the  country  as  dangerously  disturbed,  and 
calling  for  coercion.  "It  is  a  monstrous  thing,"  said 
John  Morley  on  one  occasion,  "  that  Irish  judges  should 
be  permitted,  by  public  opinion,  to  build  up  cases  by 
their  language  for  the  application  of  coercion  enact- 
ments." 3 

At  the  actual  trial  of  cases  the  language  and  bearing 
of  the  Irish  judge  often  show  a  very  unfavourable  contrast 
to  the  correct  and  dignified  demeanour  of  his  English 
confrere.  We  are  no  longer,  it  is  true,  in  the  days  in 
which,  as  Beaumont  wrote  in  1837,  "  judge  and  jury 
treated  the  prisoner  on  trial  as  a  sort  of  idolatrous 
savage,  an  enemy  who  must  be  destroyed,  a  criminal 
marked  out  in  advance  for  punishment, "4  or  in  which 

3  Hansard,  January  24th,  1902a 
A  De  Beaumont,  I.,  261. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  209 

Macaulay,  describing  the  proceedings  against  O'Connell, 
could  find  no  fitter  comparison  than  the  methods  of  the 
Star  Chamber.  Even  at  present,  however,  it  is  a  far 
from  unusual  thing  to  see  the  Judge  join  forces  with  the 
Crown  Prosecutor  where  an  English  judge  would  interfere 
to  prevent  a  defendant  from  being  unfairly  pressed.  He 
does  not  scruple  to  level  public  insult  at  a  man  who  has 
been  acquitted.  He  will  fight  the  prisoner's  counsel 
angrily  step  by  step.  He  will  autocratically  tell  the  jury 
that  they  are  bound  by  their  oaths  to  bring  in  a  verdict 
of  guilty,  and  if  they  do  not  do  so,  will  abuse  them,  and 
send  them  back  to  their  room  three  or  four  times  in  the 
hope  of  forcing  them  to  submission.  Finally,  the  judge's 
summing  up,  which,  in  England  is  a  "  model  of 
impartiality  and  fair  play,  "5  is  too  often  in  Ireland  a 
mere  speech  for  the  prosecution. 

We  have  to  take  account  also  of  the  fact  that  the 
Irish  judge  is  not  under  the  restraint  of  that  invaluable 
check,  the  duty  of  giving  formal  reasons  in  justification 
of  the  sentence  passed.  He  is  invested  by  old  custom 
with  a  quasi-discretionary  jurisdiction  which  he  is 
constantly  tempted  to  abuse.  What  is  known  as 
Contempt  of  Court  affords  an  instance  in  point.  At 
Common  Law  a  judge  has  power  to  summon  before  him 
any  person  guilty  of  Contempt  of  Court,  to  impose  on 
him  a  fine,  the  amount  of  which  is  not  limited  by  law, 
or  send  him  to  jail.  There  is  no  jury  and  no  right  of 
appeal  ;  indeed  the  Sovereign  himself  can  exercise  no 
prerogative  of  pardon  in  such  a  case.  This  arbitrary  and 
dangerous  power6  gave  rise  in  England,  in  former  times, 
to  such  deplorable  abuses  that  an  English  judge  now 
has  recourse  to  it  only  with  the  greatest  circumspection. 

5  Comte  De  Franqueville,  IL,  687.  The  conduct  of  the  Crown 
Prosecutors  is,  of  course,  still  worse  than  that  of  the  Judges.  (Cf. 
Hansard,  July  iotii,  1902).  In  England  when  a  criminal  prosecution 
has  not,  after  a  second  re-trial,  resulted  in  a  conviction,  proceedings 
are  dropped  ;  in  Ireland,  on  the  contrary,  the  Crown  presses  matters 
much  farther.  Gavan  Duffy,  e.g.,  was  tried  five  times  for  the  same 
offence  in  1849.      (Four  Years  of  Irish  History,  p.  750-755). 

6  Comte  De  Franqueville,  IL,  30. 

P 


2io       POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

In  Ireland  there  are  no  such  scruples  ;  fine  and 
imprisonment  are  often  imposed  for  the  same  offence, 
and  delinquents  are  sent  to  jail  for  an  indefinite  period, 
a  proceeding  which  is  quite  contrary  to  the  English 
practice  and  is  very  strongly  condemned  by  English 
lawyers.  An  Irish  judge  will  have  no  hesitation  in 
applying  the  law  of  contempt  in  a  case  which  would  be 
laughed  out  of  Court  in  England.  7  The  two  most  famous 
cases  of  Contempt  of  Court  proceedings  in  Ireland  are 
that  of  Dwyer  Gray,  proprietor  of  the  Freeman's  Journal, 
who  was  fined  £500  and  imprisoned  for  three  months  in 
the  year  1882  for  publishing  an  article  reflecting  on  the 
improper  behaviour  of  a  number  of  jurymen  during  the 
intervals  of  trials  ;  and  that  of  Father  Kelleher,  of 
Youghal,  who  was  punished  in  this  fashion  in  1887  for 
refusing  to  give  evidence,  although  his  refusal  was  based 
on  the  ground  of  professional  secrecy. 

With  such  a  personnel  and  practice,  from  Justice  of 
the  Peace  up  to  Judge  of  the  High  Court,  as  Ireland  has 
received  from  her  liberal  rulers,  it  is  not  easy  to  understand 
what  need  there  is  of  exceptional  laws.  One  is  impelled 
to  ask  what  has  become  of  Magna  Charta  and  habeas 
corpus  under  the  regime  of  Bail  or  Jail  and  Contempt  of 
Court  ?  But  there  is  something  more.  How  does  the 
institution  of  Trial  by  Jury  in  criminal  cases  fare  under 
that  system  of  manipulation  which  is  commonly  known 
in  Ireland  as  "Jury  Packing"  ? 


VII. — Jury  Packing.1 

This  is  a  long-established  practice,  a  survival  of  the 
days  of  the  Penal  Laws.  It  means  in  every  case  in  which 
there  is  a  political,  agrarian,  or  religious  issue  at  stake 

7  The  Land  Judge's  Court  is  particularly  notorious.  Many  attempts 
have  been  made  to  limit  contempt  of  court  jurisdiction,  including  h 
Bill  introduced  in  the  Session  of  1908.  Cf.  case  of  Mr.  Laurence  Ginnell 
M.P.  (1907).     Hansard,  April  4th,  1906. 

1  Perraud,  I.,  115  et  seq.     Hansard,  May  3rd  and  May  15th,  1901. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  211 

the  trial  of  a  Catholic  Nationalist  by  a  Protestant 
Unionist  jury,  that  is  to  say,  by  his  social  and  confessional 
adversaries,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  Catholic  and 
Nationalist  fellows.  This  was  its  character  in  England 
under  Strafford  and  in  Ireland  until  quite  recent  times. 
The  Sheriff  in  preparing  the  jury-panel  (the  Sheriff  acting, 
of  course,  on  behalf  of  Dublin  Castle)  excluded  from  it 
the  names  of  Catholics,  or,  if  he  included  them,  did  it  in 
such  a  fashion  as  to  prevent  any  of  them  being  drawn 
from  the  urn.  An  Act,  due  to  Lord  O'Hagan,  having 
deprived  the  Sheriff  of  his  discretionary  power  in  the 
preparation  of  the  panel,  recourse  was  then  had  to  an 
old  tradition  of  the  Common  Law  which  gives  the  Crown 
the  right  to  exclude  from  the  jury  any  person  who  may 
not  be  impartial  or  indifferent.  The  Crown  effects  this 
by  ordering  the  juror  to  "stand  by."  This  must  not  be 
confounded  with  the  right  of  "challenge  "; 2  it  is  a  superior 
and  sovereign  right  which  the  Crown  uses  through  its 
counsel  without  being  obliged  to  explain  its  motives  or 
its  reasons.  It  exists  in  England,  but  has  not  been 
exercised  there  since  1857.3  In  Ireland,  on  the  contrary, 
it  is  a  normal  and  every-day  procedure,  employed  in 
order  to  exclude  from  the  actual  jury  such  Catholic 
Nationalists  as  may  have  been  drawn  by  lot.  As  a  Celtic 
and  Papist  name — some  Sullivan,  Sheehy,  Condon,  Walsh, 
Donovan,  Clery  or  Lynch — is  drawn  from  the  urn,  the 
representative  of  the  Crown  pronounces  his  sacramental 
"Stand  by."  The  O's  and  the  Mac's  are  marked  out  in 
advance  for  this  treatment.      On  the  other  hand,  if  you 

2  The  prisoner  is  entitled  to  six  challenges  in  a  case  of  misdemeanour, 
and  twenty  in  a  case  of  felony.  This  classification  of  offences,  we  may 
add,  is  quite  arbitrary,  and  has  the  effect  in  Ireland,  at  all  events  in 
certain  cases,  of  restricting  greatly  the  traverser's  power  of  rejecting 
jurors.  The  Ciown  has  no  right  of  peremptory  challenge,  but  an 
unlimited  right  of  stand-by.  A  juror  to  whom  the  Crown  objects  is 
ordered,  that  is  to  say,  to  stand  by,  and  is  not  called  a  second  time 
unless  the  jury-panel  should  be  exhausted  before  a  complete  jury  is 
found.     As  the  panel  is  a  long  one  this  very  seldom  happens. 

3  Hansard,  May  3rd,  1901,  p.  662.  Sometimes,  but  very  rarely,  in 
England  the  name  of  a  juror  against  whom  there  are  grave  objections 
is  omitted  by  the  Clerk  of  the  Court  in  reading  the  panel,  this  being 
done  on  private  representations  from  the  Crown. 


2i2        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

are  a  Smith,  Wilson,  Fox  or  Green,  good  English  names, 
you  are  held  worthy  to  serve  on  the  jury. 

It  is  no  rare  thing  to  see  fifty  "Stand-by's  "  in  a  case, 
or  even  more.  The  Papists  are  called  up  in  court  like  the 
rest,  but  are  then  excluded,  a  game  which  is  very  easy 
to  play  in  a  country  in  which  a  man's  politics  and  religion 
are,  so  to  say,  written  in  his  name.  Three-quarters  of  a 
century  after  Emancipation  the  "  Papists  "  are  still 
branded  as  unfit  to  exercise  the  privilege  of  citizenship, 
they  are  marked  and  "  parked  "  as  incapables  and 
criminals.  It  is  easy  to  see  the  degradation  to  which 
justice  is  brought  by  this  system  under  a  false  show  of 
legality.  Trial  by  Jury,  the  palladium  of  British  liberty, 
becomes,  in  Lord  Denman's  often  quoted  phrase,  "  a 
mockery,  a  delusion  and  a  snare."  4  The  Crown 
arbitrarily  selects  its  own  jury,  and  it  selects  it  from 
among  the  loyalists  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  anti-Nationalists. 
The  Protestants  are  tried  by  their  friends,  the  Catholics 
by  their  enemies.  "  My  Lords,"  said  John  Martin,  "  I 
consider  that  I  have  not  yet  been  tried.  There  have  been 
certain  formalities  carried  on  here  regarding  me,  ending 
in  a  verdict  of  guilty.  But  I  have  not  yet  been  put  upon 
my  country,  as  the  constitution  said  to  exist  in  Ireland 
requires.  Twelve  of  my  countrymen,  '  indifferently 
chosen,'  have  not  been  put  into  that  jury-box  to  try  me, 
but  twelve  men  who  I  believe  have  been  selected  by  the 
parties  who  represent  the  Crown  for  the  purpose  of 
convicting  and  not  of  trying  me." 

English  Liberals  condemn  jury-packing,  as  it  deserves 
to  be  condemned.  But  this  does  not  prevent  its  being 
used  by  every  government,  Liberal  or  Conservative,  as  a 
normal  wheel  of  the  judicial  machine  ;  it  functions  under 
Mr.  Morley  as  under  Mr.  Balfour.  This  is  a  conclusive 
proof,  say  its  apologists,  that  it  is  indispensable  if  justice 
is  to  be  done  in  Ireland  ;  you  cannot  abandon  jury- 
packing,  because  "  popular  "  juries  fail  in  their   duty  of 

4  In  1843,  apropos  of  the  trial  of  O'Conneil.  (Cf.  Young  Ireland. 
By  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  p.  517). 


THE    GOVERNMENT  213 

convicting  culprits.  They  bring  in  acquittals  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  criminal,  if,  not  indeed,  with  crime 
itself,  for  they  have  been  constantly  taught  that  crime 
is  not  crime  and  law  is  not  law.  They  acquit  also  out  of 
fear.  In  many  instances  there  is  organised  intimidation 
on  the  part  of  the  Press  and  of  public  opinion  ;  in 
troubled  times  witnesses  and  jurors  alike  are  under  the 
menace  of  the  moonlighters. 5  The  real  jury-packers, 
declared  a  recent  Conservative  Attorney-General,  are  the 
political  leaders  and  their  adherents.  The  Crown  does 
not,  he  went  on — reviving  an  argument  put  forward  by 
Lord  John  Russell  in  1848 — exclude  Catholics,  qua 
Catholics,  or  Nationalists,  qua  Nationalists  ;  it  simply 
excludes  individuals  who  are  not  impartial,  and  who,  in 
its  judgment,  would  refuse  to  find  a  verdict  according  to 
their  consciences.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Crown  to  exclude 
anyone  whose  object  is  to  hamper  the  operation  of  the 
law.  Our  desire  is  to  have  really  free  men  as  jurors, 
and  far  from  perverting  the  jury  system  we  are  its  true 
guardians  ! 

Follow  your  argument  out  to  the  end,  the  Nationalists 
replied.  You  exclude  partisans,  in  order  to  put  on 
partisans  of  another  colour.  You  exclude  everybody 
who  might  be  prejudiced  in  favour  of  the  accused,  but 
you  empanel  those  who  are  prejudiced  against  him. 
When  you  have  had  him  tried  by  his  enemies,  and  so 
made  an  acquittal  impossible,  is  your  "  justice  "  very 
much  the  purer  for  it  ?  No  !  The  medicine  is  worse  than 
the  disease.  If  you  regard  the  demand  for  a  unanimous 
verdict  as  too  much — and  unanimity  is  often  merely 
obtained  through  the  weakness  or  exhaustion  of  the 
minority — abolish  it,  and  adopt  the  Scotch  and 
Continental  system  of  the  majority  verdict.  Or  even 
abolish  altogether  this  hypocrisy  of  trial  by  jury,6  if  need 
be,  in  regard  to  certain  offences,  but  at  least  cease  to 

5  Cf.  Ph.  Daxyl,  Les  Anglais  en  Irlande,  p.  117  to  121. 
b  The  phrase  was  used  by  Sir  R.  Reid,  now  Lord  Chancellor  of 
England.     (Hansard,  May  4th,  1901). 


214       POLITICAL    AND    SOCIAL    CONDITIONS 

poison  the  very  wells  of  justice  and  to  mask  illegality 
under  legal  forms 

One  thing  is  at  any  rate  certain.  Jury-packing,  de- 
priving the  accused  as  it  does  of  the  elementary  guarantees 
of  justice,  has  led  to  the  conviction  of  many  innocent 
men.  More  than  one  case  is  on  record  in  which  innocent 
men  have  even,  on  the  advice  of  their  counsel,  pleaded 
guilty  because  they  knew  that  conviction  was  certain' 
and  that  their  sole  hope  was  the  clemency  of  the  judge. 
As  an  instance  of  these  miscarriages  of  justice,  we  may, 
perhaps,  cite  the  celebrated  Maamtrasna  Case  (1882). 
An  innocent  man,  My  les  Joyce,  was  convicted  by  a 
packed  jury  and  hanged  ;  and  three  other  Joyces,  also 
most  probably  innocent,  were  sent  to  penal  servitude  for 
twenty  years.  But  a  still  graver  evil,  if  that  be  possible 
among  the  many  which  result  from  jury-packing,  is  the 
feeling,  deeply  rooted  in  the  mind  of  the  Irish  peasant, 
that  the  twelve  jurors,  seated  up  there  in  their  box,  have 
been  chosen,  not  to  try  him,  but  to  convict  him  if  he 
chance  to  be  a  Catholic  Nationalist.  Justice  is  a  luxury 
reserved  for  his  Protestant  Unionist  neighbour.  The 
whole  practice  of  the  Courts  tends  to  deepen  this  feeling. 
If  the  Irishman  is  deficient  in  a  sense  of  respect  for  law 
and  justice,  the  reason  of  this  is  not  any  deformity  of 
character,  any  instinct  of  savagery  or  lawlessness. 
"  There  is  no  nation  or  people,"  said  an  English  lawyer, 
Sir  John  Davies,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  "  under  the 
sun  that  doth  love  equal  or  indifferent  justice  better 
than  the  Irish.  "7 

Oppression,  evil  institutions,  and  unjust  "  justice," 
have  destroyed  their  confidence  in  the  law  and  its 
representatives,  and  in  many  cases  have  clouded  the 
idea  of  equity  in  the  inner  depths  of  conscience 
itself. 

Unpacked  juries  may,  indeed,  in  many  instances  acquit 
where  they  ought  to  convict,  but  the  reason  is  obvious. 
They  do  so  as  a  protest  against  the  inequitable  character 

7  Discovery,  p.  213. 


THE    GOVERNMENT  215 

and  perverse  administration  of  the  law.  The  harsher 
the  law  and  the  more  partial  the  judge,  the  readier  they 
are  to  acquit. 

The  celebrated  Tallow  case  is  an  instance  in  point. 
Two  trials  had  taken  place  without  any  conclusive  result, 
but  when  the  case  came  before  Chief  Baron  Palles,  the 
impartial  judge  par  excellence  of  the  Irish  Bench,  the 
jury  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  a  verdict  against  the 
defendants.  We  may,  perhaps,  quote  another  case.  At 
Belfast  a  few  years  ago  a  jury  had  acquitted  a  prisoner 
who  was  manifestly  guilty.  As  the  jury  were  leaving 
the  court  the  foreman  said  to  a  barrister  friend  of  ours  : 
"  Why  yes  !  We  acquitted  !  When  the  judge  is 
prejudiced,  we  always  do  acquit." 

Is  there  a  remedy  for  this  condition  of  things.  A 
way  out  of  the  vicious  circle  ?  There  is  only  one  way 
out,  and  that  is  to  bring  the  institutions  of  the  country 
into  harmony  with  the  aspirations  of  the  people. 

The  jury  system,  after  all,  has  another  function  to 
discharge,  besides  that  of  determining  questions  of  fact 
in  criminal  causes  ;  it  is  the  prime  guarantee  of  public 
liberty,  the  supreme  judge  of  laws  and  institutions.  If 
juries  systematically  refuse  to  convict,  it  is  because  there 
is  some  disease  in  the  social  organism  which  calls  for  the 
knife  of  the  political  surgeon.  When  juries  in  England 
deliberately  refused  to  convict  a  guilty  person  as  a  protest 
against  the  inhumanity  of  criminal  law,  theie  was  general 
admiration  for  the  courage  of  men  who,  by  these  tactics, 
compelled  Parliament  to  amend  the  law.8  In  Ireland, 
instead  of  hearkening  to  the  lesson  of  the  jury-boxes, 
government  "  purifies  "  the  jury  and  corrupts  the  whole 
institution.  Why  do  they  not  reform  the  law  rather 
than  degrade  it  by  jury-packing  ? 

8  E.g.  as  regards  the  law  of  libel.      On  the  point  see  Hansard,  May 
3rd,  1901,  p.  671. 


2i6        POLITICAL   AND    SOCIAL   CONDITIONS 


VIII. 

From  whatever  point  of  view  we  envisage  the  English 
government  in  Ireland  we  are  confronted  with  the  same 
appearance  of  constitutional  forms,  masking  a  state  of 
things  which  is  a  compound  of  autocracy,  oppression  and 
corruption.  We  shall  not  say,  with  Lord  Morris,  that 
"  it  is  the  history  of  a  very  stupid  people  trying  to  govern 
a  very  clever  people  against  its  will."  I  It  is  a  despotism 
that  lies  behind  this  ornamental  legality,  a  despotism 
without  many  scruples  and  but  little  mitigated  by  the 
ineffective  protest  of  the  eighty  Nationalist  Members  of 
Parliament,  that  Ireland  numbers  amongst  the  670 
Members  of  whom  the  British  Parliament  is  composed. 
Between  a  small  nation  and  a  great,  between  a  conquered 
people  and  its  conqueror,  there  can  be  but  a  sham  Union, 
"  the  union,"  in  Byron's  words,  "  of  a  boa  constrictor 
with  its  prey."  There  can  be  but  one  issue  of  such  a 
union,  a  nation  badly  governed,  and  a  government  badly 
obeyed. 

Most  certainly  there  is  something  rotten  in  the  system 
of  which  Dublin  Castle  is  the  centre.  Nothing  flourishes, 
nothing  develops  under  its  yoke.  It  has  poisoned  the 
political  atmosphere,  and  given  public  spirit  over  to 
corruption.  It  paralyses  all  initiative,  every  desire  oi 
progress,  every  idea  of  justice.  It  blasts  everything  it 
touches  ;  for  the  first  demand  which  it  makes  on  a  young 
Irishman,  anxious  to  fill  a  part  in  the  public  service,  is  that 
he  should  turn  his  back  on  his  beliefs,  religious  and 
political.  It  is  the  main  agent  of  demoralization,  for  as 
has  been  well  said,  when  the  people  does  not  fashion  the 
government,  the  government  fashions  the  people. 
Detested  by  Nationalist  Ireland  it  is  also  denounced 
even  by  Unionists  of  liberal  tendencies.  Three  successive 
Under-Secretaries,  Sir  R.  Hamilton,  Sir  Redvers  Buller, 

1  Ruskin  described  it  as  the  case  of  witty  people  who  will  never  allow 
themselves  to  be  governed  by  people  who  are  the  reverse.  (Pall  Mall 
Gazette,  January  5th,  li 


THE    GOVERNMENT  217 

and  Sir  West  Ridgeway2  have  put  on  record  their 
condemnation  of  the  "  Castle  "  system  over  which  they 
had  presided.  Can  it  be  reformed  ?  Would  it  be  possible 
to  make  the  Castle  government  a  good  government,  and 
the  Union  a  reality  and  an  advantage  ?  The  answer 
given  by  the  experience  of  a  century  is,  No  !  Thomas 
Drummond,  the  great  Scotchman,  tried  and  failed.  Sir 
Antony  MacDonnell  has  had  but  little  better  success. 
The  cause  of  failure  is  plainly  this,  that  an  English 
government  in  Ireland  will  always  find  itself  under  the 
disastrous  control  of  the  "  English  in  Ireland."  The 
Garrison,  the  "Colony,"  will  ever  use  it  as  a  weapon  in 
the  war  of  the  classes  ;  however  reconstructed,  the  Castle 
will  remain  the  servant  of  the  oligarchy.  The  only 
possible  reform  is  a  revolution,  the  revolution  that  would 
be  effected  by  the  introduction  of  the  representative 
principle. 

2  See  Nineteenth  Century  Review,  August  and  October,  1906 


PART  IL 
MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

CHAPTER   L— THE  LAND  QUESTION  i 

The  Irish  agrarian  question  dates  its  birth  from  the  day 
when  the  first  Anglo-Normans  set  foot  there,  and  began 
to  despoil  the  ancient  clans  of  their  land.  It  grew  and 
increased  throughout  those  long  centuries  during  which 
England  neglected  not  merely  the  government  but  even 
the    conquest    of    Ireland,    and    contented    herself    with 

1  V.  On  the  agrarian  question  :  P.  Fournier,  La  Question  Agraire  en 
Irlande,  Paris,  1882.  J.  Flach,  Histoire  du  Régime  Agraire  de  l'Irlande 
(leçon  d'ouverture  faite  au  Collège  de  France),  Paris,  1883.  E.  Ferré, 
l'Irlande,  Sa  crise  agraire  et  politique,  Paris,  1887.  Et.  Béchaux,  la 
Question  Agraire  en  Irlande,  Paris,  1906.  Meyer  et  Ardent,  la  Question 
Agrarie,  2nd  edition,  Paris,  1887.  L.  de  Lavergne,  Essai  sur  l' Economie 
Rurale  de  l'Angleterre,  de  l'Ecosse  et  de  l'Irlande,  Paris,  1864.  Shaw 
Lefevre,  Agrarian  Tenures,  London,  1893.  Nisbet,  Land  Tenure  in 
Ireland,  Edinburgh,  1887.  Montgomery,  The  History  of  Land  Tenure 
in  Ireland,  Cambridge,  1889.  Lord  Dufferin,  Emigration  and  the  Tenure 
of  Irish  Land,  London,  1867.  Barry  O'Brien,  Fifty  Years  of  Concessions 
to  Ireland,  London,  1883.  By  the  same,  Parliamentary  History  of  the 
Irish  Land  Question,  London,  1881.  Richey,  The  Irish  Land  Laws, 
London,  1881.  Lord  Russell  of  Killowen,  New  Views  on  Ireland, 
London,  1881.  Antonio  Pittaluga,  La  Questione  Agraria  in  Irlanda, 
Roma,  1894.  Modern  Ireland  and  her  Agrarian  Problem,  by  Moritz 
Bonn,  translated  by  T.  W.  Rolleston,  Dublin,  1906.  The  Case  of  the 
Irish  Landlords,  by  one  of  them,  Dublin,  1899.  O'Connor  Morris, 
Present  Irish  Questions,  London,  1901.  Cherry,  Wakely,  and  Maxwell, 
The  Irish  Land  Law  and  Land  Purchase  Acts,  3rd  edition,  Dublin, 
1902.  Cf.  the  Reports  (and  evidence)  of  numerous  Commissions  of 
enquiry  into  the  agricultural  question,  especially  the  Devon  Commission, 
Bessborough  Commission,  Cowper  Commission,  Morley  Committee,  Fry 
Commission.  Cf.  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Land  Commission.  Cf. 
our  communication  to  the  Société  d'Economie  Sociale  (Séance  of  Jan. 
nth,  1904,  Réforme  Sociale  of  the  following  March  1st). 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  219 

maintaining  in  that  country  a  profitable  state  of  anarchy, 
which  prevented  all  progress,  and  which  impeded  the 
natural  evolution  from  collective  to  individual  property. 
But  it  is  only  when  we  reach  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  in  the  days  of  the  Tudors,  of  Cromwell,  and  of 
William  III.,  that  the  agrarian  question  begins,  under  the 
influence  of  the  Plantations  and  the  Penal  Laws,  to 
assume  its  modern  shape,  and  to  claim  that  melancholy 
pre-eminence  which  has  lasted  down  to  our  own  time. 


I. — Historical. 

Of  all  the  past  then,  whether  Celtic,  Anglo-Norman,  or 
even  feudal,  nothing  remains  by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century  but  the  mere  memory.  With  the  reigns  of 
William  III.  and  Queen  Anne  a  new  state  of  things  comes 
into  being.  The  old  Celtic  tenure2  has  disappeared,  just 
as,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  clans  themselves  and  the 
old  Brehon  laws  have  passed  away.  Confiscations  and 
plantations  have  transferred  the  ownership  of  the  soil 
into  the  hands  of  a  small  number  of  large  proprietors  or 
landlords.  These  new  settlers,  for  the  most  part  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Protestant,  have  now  beneath  them,  at  their 
beck  and  call  as  holders  of  precarious  tenancies,  all  the 
victims  of  both  recent  and  former  conquests.  These 
latter,  whether  Celts  by  blood  or  Celticised  strangers, 
have  all  alike  sunk  to  the  condition  of  helots.  The  Penal 
Laws  are  completing,  as  we  have  seen,  the  reduction  to 
servitude  of  the  Catholic  masses.  Papists  are  forbidden 
to  buy  land  ;  they  can  take  it  on  lease,  but  only  for  a 
term  of  under  thirty  years,  and  at  a  rent  equal  to  not 
less  than  two-thirds  of  the  produce  of  the  soil.  A  reward 
is  offered  to  anyone  who  reports  a  breach  of  these  laws. 3 
We  come  in  this  way  to  the  birth  of  the  new  regime, 

2  As  regards  Celtic  tenure  we  can  only  refer  our  readers  to  the  learned 
works  of  M.  D'Arbois  de  Jubainville,  Maine,  O'Curry,  etc. 

3  2  Anne  ch.  6,  Sec.   2  (1703).      Cf.  Beaumont  op.  cit.,  I.,  95,  etc. 


220  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

which  is  by  nature  half  agrarian  and  half  political,  and  is 
the  fruit  of  conquest,  confiscation  and  persecution.  It 
establishes  a  condition  of  things  for  which  I  believe  no 
parallel  could  be  found  in  the  world,  but  wliich  for  nearly 
two  centuries  is  to  remain  master  of  Ireland,  namely, 
landlordism. 

It  places  the  mass  of  the  tenants  at  the  mercy  of  the 
landlord,  who  exploits  them  without  mercy.  There  are 
few.  if  any.  leases  ;  the  tenants  hold  the  land  by  the 
year  or  even  at  will,  at  the  discretion  of  the  master.  The 
result  is  complete  insecurity.  In  his  capacities  of 
proprietor,  judge  and  administrator,  the  landlord  in 
reality  has  power  of  life  and  death  over  his  tenants  ;  he 
evicts  them  at  will  :  fixes  their  leases  at  his  pleasure  ; 
imposes  rules,  upon  them,  t3Tannical  regulations,  together 
with  a  whole  system  of  lines  and  corporal  penalties  wherein 
are  to  be  found  the  worst  feudal  exactions. 4  "  The 
landlord  of  an  Irish  estate  inhabited  by  Roman  Catholics," 
writes  Arthur  Young,5  "is  a  sort  of  despot  who  yields 
obedience,  in  whatever  concerns  the  poor,  to  no  law  but 
that  of  his  will." 

One-third  of  the  landlords  are  absentees,  and  Ireland  is, 
as  a  consequence,  left  to  middlemen  who,  renting  their 
estates  at  a  low  price  and  for  a  long  term  of  years,  sublet 
them  in  portions  to  the  peasants.  Young  denounces  this 
class  as  "  the  vermin  of  the  country."  Under  a  regime 
of  this  nature,  agriculture  rapidly  declines  ;  the  trees 
disappear  off  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century  half  Ireland  is  a  desert,  and  down 
to  the  time  of  the  Great  Famine  of  1S47,  famines  are 
periodical.  "The  rise  of  our  rents,"  says  Swift,  "is 
squeezed  out  of  the  very  blood,  and  vitals,  and  clothes, 
and  dwellings  of  the  tenants,  who  live  worse  than  English 
beggars.""  Why  should  we  be  astonished  if  the  peasant 
then  resorts  to  assassination  as  his  method  of  defence 

4  Cf.  Cardinal  Perraud  op.  cit.,  I.,  222,  ett.     T.  P.  O'Connor,   The 
Parnell  Movement,  Chapter  VI. 

5  Tour  in  Ireland,  II.,   126. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  221 

and  his  hope  of  revenge  ?  "  Whiteboyism  "  is  the  only 
curb  that  "  landlordism  "  has  ever  known  ;  the  one  will 
last  as  long  as  the  other,  and  "  weighing  one  against  the 
other,"  writes  an  English  M.P.,  Mr.  Poulett  Scrope,6  in 
1844,  "  horror  against  horror,  and  crime  against  crime,  it 
is,  perhaps,  the  lesser  evil  of  the  two." 

After  the  abrogation  of  the  Penal  Laws  a  lull  occurs  in 
the  agrarian  troubles  of  Ireland.  Beginning  at  the  end 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  it  continues  into  the  early 
years  of  the  nineteenth,  during  the  period  of  agricultural 
prosperity  which  came  to  the  United  Kingdom  as  one 
effect  of  the  Napoleonic  wars  and  the  continental  blockade. 
Cultivation  regains  its  hold  over  these  huge  tracts  which, 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  had  been  surrendered  to 
pasture.  The  land  is  parcelled  out  ;  holdings  are 
multiplied  ;  and  tenancies  for  life  become  more  common, 
All  these  developments  are  encouraged  by  the  landlords, 
who  rejoice  over  the  growth  of  their  rent  rolls,  and,  during 
those  times  ol  political  serfdom,  over  the  increased  number 
of  their  voters.  But  a  reaction  is  close  at  hand  and  a 
fresh  crisis  about  to  occur,  for  reasons  that  are  now  of 
common  knowledge.  First  of  all  comes  the  fall  in  the 
price  of  agricultural  produce  after  18 15,  a  fall  intensified 
by  the  repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  1847  which,  combined 
with  excessive  sub-division  of  the  land  into  small  holdings, 
would  seem,  for  a  time, to  make  all  cultivation  unprofitable. 
Then  we  have  the  law  of  Catholic  Emancipation  of  1829, 
which  withdraws  the  right  to  vote  from  freeholders  with 
an  income  of  forty  shillings,  that  is  to  say,  from  the 
great  majority  of  the  tenants  for  life.  By  this  measure 
the  peasant  is  deprived  of  his  best  weapon  against  the 
landlord,  and  the  landlord  of  all  incentive  to  grant  leases 
or  multiply  holdings.  Matters  come  at  length  to  a  crisis  ; 
and  a  fearful  crisis  it  is,  accompanied  by  the  Great  Famine 
which  lasts  three  years,  and  by  the  Clearances,  which  last 
thirty.  Throughout  the  whole  country  the  landlords 
level    the   fences,    demolish   the    houses,    and   evict    the 

6  Barry  O'Brien,  A  Hundred  Years  of  Irish  History,  p.  64 


222  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

peasants  ;  they  "  sweep  out,"  in  fact,  all  this  population 
of  starvelings  who  are  only  in  their  way,  and  put  oxen 
and  sheep  in  the  place  of  human  beings.  Ubi  solitiidinem 
faciunt  pacem  appellant.  All  the  better  land  is  turned 
into  pasture  ;  and,  on  what  remains  of  the  soil,  the 
remnant  of  the  peasants  are  allowed  to  huddle  together. 
In  a  few  months  whole  counties,  such  as  Meath,  or 
Tipperary,  are  depopulated,  and  changed  into  prairies 
like  those  of  America.  The  latifundia  extend  farther  than 
the  eye  can  reach.  In  ten  years  282,000  peasant  homes 
are  destroyed,  and  a  million  and  a  half  of  the  Irish  people 
cross  the  Atlantic.  Between  1849  and  i860,  according  to 
Mulhall,  the  statistician,  373,000  Irish  families  are  evicted,7 
numbering  just  about  two  million  persons  in  all.  The 
notices  to  quit  keep  falling,  according  to  the  well  known 
saying  of  Gladstone,  as  thick  as  snow  flakes.  "  In  one 
union,"  according  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  "  at  a  time  of 
famine,  within  one  year,  15,000  persons  have  been  driven 

from  their  homes ;   I  do  not  think  the  records  of 

any  country,  civilised  or  barbarous,  ever  presented  such 
scenes  of  horror."  8 

But  what  was  England  doing  throughout  all  this  period  ? 
What  steps  was  the  Government  taking  in  view  of  the 
gravity  of  this  crisis  ?  None,  unless  it  were  to  pass 
coercion  laws.  Already,  in  the  year  1845,  a  great  Com- 
mission of  Enquiry,  the  Devon  Commission,  composed  of 
Englishmen  and  landlords,  had  diagnosed  the  disease  and 
suggested  a  treatments  but  its  report  was  allowed  to  lie 
unopened.  In  1850,  the  Tenants'  League,  the  organization 
both  of  the  north  and  of  the  south,  issued  a  very  moderate 
programme  of  reforms,  based  on  a  demand  for  the 
recognition  of  that  tenant-right,  which  Gladstone  afterwards 
sanctioned.  "  Tenant-iight,"  replied  Lord  Palmerston,  "  is 
landlord  wrong  !  "    From  1829  to  1867,  Parliament  threw 

7  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  London,  1886,  p.  175. 

8  Young  Ireland,  by  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  p.  239.      Cf.  New  Ireland  by 
A.  M.  Sullivan,  Chap.  XI. 

9  Vide  the  extracts  from  its  reports  in  Perraud  I.,  381  and  following 
pp.      Cf.  Young  Ireland  of  Sir  C.  Gavan  Duffy,  p.  640,  etc. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  223 

out  or  strangled  23  bills  in  favour  of  the  Irish  peasant. 
To  make  up  for  this  it  passed  two  agrarian  laws,  liberal 
in  appearance,  but  both  very  strongly  marked  with  the 
tendencies  of  the  time,  that  is  to  say,  with  the  doctrines 
of  the  Manchester  school,  and  fated  in  practice  to  do 
nothing  but  harm  to  Ireland. 

The  first   was   the   Encumbered  Estates  Act  of  1849. 
The  Irish  landlords,  for  their  part,  had  not  passed  through 
the   Great   Famine  without  suffering,   though  in   a  less 
degree  than  the  peasants.       Their  rents  had  fallen  in 
value,   and  in  some  cases  almost  disappeared.       Simul- 
taneously there  had   occurred   a  rise  in  local  taxation 
(poor  rate)  so  serious   as   sometimes  to  absorb  the  whole 
rent.   As  a  result  about  one-third  of  them  had  succumbed. 
Now,    therefore,    said    the    English    economists,    let    us 
liquidate   the   past  ;    let  us   clear  off  this   dead  weight, 
and  open  up  the  land  market.      Capital  is  the  only  force 
that  can  regenerate  Ireland  ;   then  let  us  call  into  Ireland 
the  capitalists  of  Great  Britain.      The  outcome  of  these 
ideas  was  the  Act  of  1849,  which  established  in  Dublin  a 
Court,  known  as  the   Encumbered   Estates  Court,  whose 
function     was     to    negotiate    the    sale    of    encumbered 
properties   on  the  demand  of   creditors  or  even  of   the 
owners  themselves,   This  tribunal,  afterwards  reorganised 
in  1858  under  the  name  of  the  Landed  Estates  Court,  with 
an   enlarged  jurisdiction   and   a  permanent  status,   was 
finally  incorporated  in  the  Supreme  Court  in  1877  under 
the  name  of  the  Land  Judge's  Court.      It  was  endowed 
with  very  wide  powers,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  make 
a  wide  use  of  them.      In  less  than  ten  years  it  had  sold 
encumbered    estates    to    the    value    of    twenty    millions 
sterling.10       One-sixth   of   the   soil   of   Ireland   changed 
masters  and  passed  into  new  hands.      The  new  owners 
comprised  eight  or  ten  thousand  "  capitalists,"  men    of 

10  A.  M.  Sullivan,  New  Ireland,  Ch.  XII.  This  would  have  been  a 
magnificent  opportunity  for  the  creation  of  a  class  of  peasant 
proprietors,  if  British  statesmen  had  not  been  trained  from  their  vouth 
to  a  prejudice  against  a  system  of  small  holdings. 


224  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

business  or  rich  townsmen,  land  jobbers  and  speculators. 
These  novi  homines,  seeing  that  the  law  had  provided  no 
protection  for  the  peasant,  hastened  to  raise  their  rents 
to  the  highest  possible  limit  in  order  to  obtain  the  highest 
possible  profit  out  of  the  transaction,  and  proceeded  to 
exploit  the  tenants  with  a  pitiless  severity  unknown  under 
the  ancient  race  of  landlords.  The  new  "  Plantation  " 
was,  in  reality,  only  another  "  confiscation,"  at  the 
expense,  firstly,  of  the  landlords,  who  were  expropriated 
at  a  miserable  price,  and,  secondly,  of  the  tenants,  whose 
rights  were  appropriated  by  the  newcomers.11  The 
net  result  was  merely  a  little  more  misery  for 
Ireland. 

The  second  piece  of  agrarian  legislation  voted  by  the 
British  Parliament,  Deasy's  Act — Deasy  being  the  name 
of  its  author — came  into  operation  in  i860.  It  was 
destined,  in  spite  of  its  equally  good  intentions,  to  produce 
equally  deplorable  results.  Lawyers  will  tell  you  that 
before  i860  the  relations  between  landlord  and  tenant 
were  founded  not  upon  contract  but  upon  tenure,  or  in 
other  words  upon  custom.  The  Irish  tenant  was  neither 
a  "  farmer  "  in  the  legal  sense,  nor  a  "  leaseholder,"  but 
enjoyed  a  real  right  capable  of  being  sub-let  or  sold,  a 
circumstance  involving  a  series  of  legal  consequences  into 
the  details  of  which  we  cannot  here  enter.12  These 
vestiges  of  ancient  feudal  right,  however,  were  of  a  nature 
to  shock  the  theorists  of  laissez-faire  and  free  competition. 
To  solve  the  agrarian  question  in  Ireland,  they  argued, 
there  was  but  one  tiling  both  necessary  and  sufficient, 
namely,  commercial  liberty.  Ireland  must  have  freedom 
of  exchange  in  all  matters  connected  with  land. 
Therefore,  it  was  on  a  foundation  of  free  contract,  express 

11  On  this  point  see  our  remarks  on  the  rights  of  the  tenant  to 
improvements  and  to  the  increase  in  value  of  the  soil. 

12  The  landlord  did  not  guarantee  "  effective  possession  "  and  enjoyed 
no  privilege  over  the  goods  of  the  tenants  as  security  for  payment  of 
the  rent.  The  tenant,  on  the  other  hand,  was  not  bound  to  cultivate 
"  en  bon  père  de  famille  "  nor  at  the  end  of  his  tenure  to  restore  the 
land  in  good  condition.  V.  Richey  Irish  Land  Laws,  35,  etc.  Cf. 
Fournier,  La  Question  Agraire  en  Irlande,  p.  62  and  the  following. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  225 

or  implied, — a  contract  analogous  to  that  of  hiring, — that 
the  Act  of  i860  based  the  future  legal  relations  between 
tenant  and  landlord.^      Of  genuine  rights  there  was  no 
longer  to  be  any  question.     The  farmer  could  be  expelled 
for  non-payment  of  rent  by  a  mere  action  for  ejectment. 
Eviction  being  thus  facilitated,  a  new  clause,  concerning 
the  farmer's  improvements  on  the  land,  permitted  the 
landlord  to  prevent  or  confiscate  these  improvements  at 
will.    The  pretended  reform,  therefore,  merely  aggravated 
matters,  by  taking  from  the  peasant  those  few  forms  of 
protection,  the  last  safeguards  that  he  had  hitherto  found 
in  traditional  custom  or  legal  formality.      Fortunately, 
Deasy's  Act,  when  once  placed  on  the  Statute  Book,  was 
but  little  used  in  practice. r4     Nevertheless,  it  marks  a 
stage  in  the  history  of  the  Irish  agrarian  question.    Before 
i860,   the  law  had  intervened  only  to    strengthen    the 
rights   of  landlords   and   to  protect   them  against  their 
tenants.       In   i860,  it  seeks  to  come  to  a    position    of 
equilibrium  between  the  parties,  or,  in  other  words,  of  non- 
intervention.     Soon  the  makers  of  the  law  will  come  to 
understand  that  they  must  interfere  on  the  other  side, 
on  behalf  of  the  farmers  ;    and  that   after  having  for 
almost  two  centuries  favoured  the  legal  exploitation  of  a 
whole  people  of  peasants  by  those  whom  conquest  had 
made  masters  of  the  soil,   they  must  now  protect  the 
weak  against  the  strong,  the  tenants  against  the  landlords. 
This,  therefore,  became  the  aim  of  the  legislation  soon 
afterwards   inaugurated   by   Gladstone   and   the   Liberal 
Government  in   England.       But,   before   examining  the 
broad  lines  of  Gladstonian  reform,  it  will  be  well  to  take 
a  summary   glance    at    the   conditions   surrounding   the 
Irish  agrarian  problem,  and  to  bring  into  relief  certain 
points    of    a    general    character    which    exercise    a    pre- 
dominating influence  over  the  question. 

J3  Consequently,  the  lessor  is  impliedly  held  to  guarantee  to  his  lessee 
peaceful  possession  ;  the  farmer  is  held  to  have  undertaken  by  contract 
to  pay  rent,  and  to  restore  what  is  let  to  him  in  good  condition.  Cf. 
Richey,  p.  52  and  following  pages,  and  Fournier,  p.  87,  etc. 

*4  Report  of  the  Bessborongh  Commission,  p.  6. 

Q 


226  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 


IL — General  Data  of  the  Problem. 

First  of  all,  then,  we  must  realise  the  importance  of  the 
agrarian  question,  and  its  pre-eminence  above  all  other 
economic  questions  in  Ireland.  This  may  be  measured 
by  the  fact  that,  out  of  the  whole  Irish  people,  numbering 
rather  less  than  <\\  millions,  the  rural  classes — which  in 
England  amount  to  only  19  per  cent,  of  the  whole — 
actually  account  in  Ireland  for  more  than  two-thirds  of 
the  population,  or  over  three  million  inhabitants.1 
Agriculture  in  Ireland  employs  directly,  according  to  the 
Census  of  1901,  2,664,204  people.2  The  landlords  are 
some  12,000  to  15,000  in  number.  The  cultivators,  that 
is  to  say,  tenants,  or  former  tenants  who  have  acquired 
the  ownership  of  their  land  under  recent  land-purchase 
Acts,  show  a  total  of  544,625  (heads  of  families),  in  1903,3 
and  there  are  in  addition  the  agricultural  labourers. 
Many  of  these,  being  at  the  same  time  tenants  and 
labourers,  have  already  been  included  in  the  figures  quoted, 
but  a  certain  proportion,  which  cannot  be  accurately 
determined,  must  come  under  a  separate  category  as 
neither  possessing  nor  cultivating  land  for  their  own 
profit. 

We  have,  thus,  a  whole  population  which  depends  for 
its  daily  life  directly  on  the  land,  on  the  annual  profit 
obtained  off  the  15,536,751  acres  of  cultivable  soil  which 
are  available  in  Ireland.4  This  annual  profit  is  estimated 
by  statisticians  at  a  mean  figure  of  40  millions  sterling, 
including  the  wages  and  profits  of  farmers  and  agricultural 
labourers,  and  the  rent  of  the  landlords.  This  latter 
item  is  nowadays  not  valued  at  above  8  millions,  although 

1  3,073,846  according  to  the  Census  of  1901  (General  Report,  p.  10). 
In  Germany,  agriculture  occupies  41.67  per  cent,  of  the  population 
(G.  Blondel,  Les  populations  Rurales  de  l' Allemagne,  Paris,  1897,  p.  5). 
In  France,  50  per  cent.  (De  Foville,  La  France  économique,  p.  51). 

2  General  Report,  p.  16.  This  figure  is  certainly  less  than  the  true 
number. 

3  Agricultural  Statistics  of  Ireland,  1903,  p.  xix. 

4  Agricultural  Statistics  of  Ireland,  1903,  pp.  v.  and  3. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  227 

25  years  ago  it  was  reckoned  at  10  millions,  and  Wakefield 
in  1817  put  the  amount  at  over  17  millions. 5  We  may 
remark  that  this  Irish  land  is  not  naturally  poor  ; 
competent  observers  such  as  Arthur  Young,  Wakefield, 
Sir  R.  Kane,  L.  de  Lavergne,  have  always  refused  to 
regard  it  as  poor.  It  is  capable  of  feeding  18  million 
inhabitants,  according  to  Sir  Robert  Kane,  or  25  million, 
according  to  De  Beaumont.  If  to-day  Ireland  can  scarcely 
support  even  her  present  restricted  population,  this  is  not 
the  fault  of  nature,  but  is  due  to  antiquated  methods  of 
farming,  indolence  and  carelessness  on  the  part  of  the 
cultivators,  and  the  want  of  capital.  It  is  also,  and 
chiefly,  the  result  of  special  economic  conditions  which 
deserve  the  closest  study. 

In  the  first  place,  land  furnishes  almost  the  only 
resource  and  sole  revenue  of  Ireland.  Apart  from  it, 
Ireland  produces  hardly  anything.  "  Debarred  from 
every  other  trade  and  industry,"  wrote  the  late  Lord 
Dufferin,  "  the  entire  nation  (during  the  eighteenth 
century)  flung  itself  back  upon  the  land  with  as  fatal  an 
impulse  as  when  a  river  whose  current  is  suddenly  impeded 
rolls  back  and  drowns  the  valley  it  once  fertilized."  If,  as 
is  true,  two-thirds  of  the  population  are  directly  dependent 
on  land,  one  may  add  that  indirectly  the  whole  population 
is  dependent  on  it.  There  is  no  wealth,  the  Physiocrats 
used  to  say,  except  land.  A  mistake,  of  course,  but  a 
mistake  that  was,  and  still  is,  true  for  Ireland. 

5  The  figure  of  40  million  pounds  sterling,  representing  the  gross 
product  of  the  land,  less  all  expenses  of  cultivation  other  than  wages, 
profits  and  rents,  is  that  given  in  1895  before  the  Financial  Relations 
Commission  by  the  eminent  statistician,  Sir  Robert  Giffen.  (Evidence 
II.  13-14,  165-166,  176-17 7).  This  figure  would  be  rather  above  than 
below  the  mark,  according  to  Sir  Robert  Giffen.  Dr.  T.  W.  Grimshaw, 
then  Registrar-General  of  Ireland,  in  his  evidence  before  the  same 
Commission,  gave  a  higher  figure  :  46  million  pounds  (Evidence  I. 
121-122,  451  and  following  pages,  456).  Both  results  are  based  on 
statistics  collected  by  the  police,  statistics  which  Irish  opinion  regards 
as  given  under  pressure  (Evidence  I.,  282  and  283,  Evidence  of  Mr. 
Murrough  O'Brien,  Land  Commissioner,  and  Final  Report,  p.  78  and 
79,  special  report  of  Mr.  Sexton).  In  Ireland  the  tendency  is  to  believe 
that  the  mean  annual  figure  of  agricultural  production  does  not  in 
reality  exceed  35  or  36  million  pounds  sterling. 


228  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

It  is  here  that  we  discover  the  special  and  really  unique 
characteristic  of  the  agrarian  question  in  Ireland.  In 
every  other  country,  in  England  or  in  France,  a  peasant 
who  cannot  pick  up  a  living  in  the  fields,  goes  off  to  the 
town,  to  a  factory.  In  Ireland  one  may  say  that  there 
are  no  factories,  and,  with  the  exception  of  Dublin  and 
Belfast,  there  are  no  industrial  towns.  The  Irish  peasant 
has  no  choice  nor  alternative  ;  land  represents  for  him  the 
only  work  to  which  he  can  turn  his  hand,  the  only  means 
of  earning  a  livelihood.  He  who  has  land  has  life  ;  he 
who  loses  land  dies.  The  competition  for  the  land  is 
consequently  intense.  Each  man  tries  to  outbid  his 
neighbour,  and,  if  possible,  to  oust  him  ;  prices  rise  in 
consequence  of  this  competition  ;  and  so  the  peasants  make 
themselves  the  artificers  of  their  common  misfortune. 

The  struggle  for  land  is  thus  the  Irish  form  of  the 
struggle  for  life  :  Qui  terre  a,  guerre  a  !  Nowhere  is  the 
popular  saying  more  true.  The  land  is  the  source  of 
jealousies,  disputes  and  troubles  without  end.  Hence 
these  "  boycottings  "  which,  under  one  name  or  another, 
have  always  existed  in  Ireland,  which  hit  you  through 
your  connections,  your  clients,  your  tradesmen,  in  the 
village  or  at  the  market.  Hence  the  hatred  of  the  peasant 
against  the  grazier,  that  is  to  say,  the  cattle  merchant, 
who  year  after  year  rents  from  the  landlord  fattening 
land  for  his  beasts,  and  thus  withdraws  it  from  cultivation. 
Hence  the  war  against  the  grabber  or  stealer  of  land, 
the  intruder  who,  without  possessing  any  rights  in  the 
matter,  comes  on  speculation  and  takes  a  farm  from  which 
the  preceding  tenant  has  been  expelled  "  unjustly,"  that 
is  to  say,  for  the  non-payment  of  an  excessive  rent — such 
"  grabbing  "  involving  a  violation  of  the  custom  which 
from  all  time  has  recognised  the  tenant's  right  of  joint 
property  in  the  soil  that  he  cultivates.6     All  this  results 

6  In  virtue  of  this  custom  an  unjustly  evicted  tenant  practically 
preserves  his  rights.  If  he  can,  he  will  try  to  retake  possession  by 
force  ;  if  not,  he  will  wait,  and,  in  some  cases  after  ten  or  twenty  years, 
he  will  succeed  in  getting  himself  reinstated.  One  such  farm,  the 
tenant    of   which    was    unjustly   evicted    twenty-five    years    ago,    has 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  229 

out  of  the  struggle  for  the  land.  It  is  the  effect  of  that 
unnatural  competition  which,  being  repressed  at  one 
point,  reappears  at  another,  baffles  all  foresight,  perverts 
all  reforms,  and  will  always  make  the  solution  of  the 
agrarian  question  not  merely  very  difficult,  but,  in 
fact,  impossible,  so  long  as  no  industries  exist  in  Ireland, 
and  there  is  no  resource  but  the  land. 

If  we  pause  for  a  moment  to  compare  the  situation  of 
the  Irish  peasant  with  that  of  the  ancient  serfs  in  feudal 
times  we  find  the  one  the  precise  opposite  of  the  other. 
The  serf  was  tied  to  the  land,  but  he  had  a  right  over  the 
soil  ;  he  could  not  leave  the  land,  but  no  one  could  turn 
him  off  it.  On  an  entirely  contrary  system,  the  Irish 
peasant,  before  1870,  was  essentially  "removable."  He  only 
asked  to  be  left  on  the  land  ;  he  would  have  asked  for 
nothing  better  than  to  be  a  serf.  The  terrible  thing  for 
him  was  to  be  evictable  at  will.  What  in  reality  made 
this  fate  so  terrible  was  precisely  this  uncurbed  competition 
for  the  occupation  of  the  soil,  which  brought  it  about 
that  a  landlord  who  evicted  a  tenant  could  at  once  find 
two  others  in  his  stead  ready  to  take  up  the  holding  at 
any  price.  The  landlord  was  master  of  the  situation. 
"  He  has,"  says  Lord  Normanby,  "  the  monopoly  of  the 
means  of  subsistence,  together  with  a  power  that  exists 
nowhere  else,  the  power  of  starvation."  Naturally  he 
made  use  of  it  to  refuse  leases  to  his  tenants,  to  levy 
rack  rents,  and  to  evict  his  tenants  at  will.  All  this,  it 
used  to  be  said,  is  the  free  play  of  economic  forces,  the 
law  of  supply  and  demand.  This  is  not  so  ;  it  is  the 
result  of  unfair  competition  and  of  a  perverted  market. 
Doubtless  if  the  supply  of  land  were  unlimited,  or  even 
more  or  less  equal  to  the  demand,  then  prices  would  adjust 
themselves  in  a  free  and  equitable  manner.  But  here, 
whether  intentionally  or  not,  the  landlord  is  speculating 

remained  waste  to  this  day  ;  no  one  dares  to  take  it  up.  This  is  the 
Black  Farm  near  Maryborough.  We  may  add  that  grabbers  and  graziers, 
those  two  props  of  landlordism,  are  usually  somewhat  uninteresting 
persons  ;  rural  usurers,  traders  on  trust,  "  greedy  cormorants,"  as  Sir 
Thomas  More,  even  in  his  day,  used  to  call  them. 


230  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

on  the  necessity  of  the  peasant,  his  necessity  of  possessing 
land.  It  is  an  unequal  struggle  between  a  monopoly  on 
the  one  hand  and  a  primary  need  on  the  other.  Besides 
this  there  could  not  possibly  be  any  freedom  of  contract 
between  landlord  and  tenant.  "  The  very  word 
'  contract,'  "  said  Lord  Dufferin,  "  implies  mutual  inde- 
pendence of  both  parties  ;  who  would  dare  to  uphold 
that  the  Irish  tenants  are  in  an  independent  position  ? 
Between  the  landlord  and  them  a  treaty  or  a  contract  is 
out  of  the  question."  Nassau  Senior  is  equally  strong  in 
his  assertions.  "  The  bargain  between  landlords  and 
tenants  in  Ireland  is  not  a  calm  affair  in  which  the  tenant 
offers  what  should  be  a  fair  price,  and  cares  little  whether 
his  offer  is  rejected  ;  it  is  a  battle  such  as,  in  a  besieged 
town,  might  take  place  over  buying  bread.  "7 

This  competition  for  the  land  naturally  increases  in 
keenness  accordingly  as  there  are  more  peasants  for  the 
land  or  less  land  for  the  peasants.  Now  it  is  clear  that 
the  greater  the  area  withdrawn  from  cultivation  and  given 
over  to  grazing,  so  much  the  less  will  remain  for  human 
occupation.  On  the  other  hand,  the  more  peasants  there 
are  in  proportion  to  the  land,  so  much  the  more  danger 
will  there  be  of  its  becoming  subdivided  into  minute 
holdings.  These  two  special  and  closely  connected  points 
— sub-division  and  the  predominance  of  pasture  over 
tillage — tend  singularly  to  increase  the  difficulties  of  the 
agrarian  question  in  Ireland.  Let  us  examine  them  in 
turn,  beginning  with  the  latter. 

Ireland  has,  from  the  earliest  ages,  been  "  The  Green 
Isle,"  the  home  above  all  others  of  cattle  breeding.  In 
the  sixteenth  century  Sir  W.  Petty  reckoned  n  million 
acres  of  pasturage  as  against  only  800,000  of  cultivated 
land.  According  to  the  trend  of  the  times,  under  the 
influence  of  causes  that  were  often  as  much  social  as 
economic,  the  proportion  of  land  under  pasture  as 
compared  with  that  under  tillage  has  alternately  increased 

7  Irish  tenants  are  not  the  creatures  of  contract,  but  of  servitude. 
(George  C.  Brodrick,  Political  Studies,  London,   1879,  p.  319). 


THE   LAND    QUESTION  231 

and  diminished.     During  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,     pasture     had     encroached     considerably     on 
cultivated  land,  owing,  indirectly,   to  the  effect  of  the 
Penal  Laws.8    Wesley  declared  in  1760  that  Connaught 
contained   then   only  half   the   population   that   it   had 
possessed  some  eighty  years  earlier.     From  1782  to  1829 
a  contrary  movement  had  taken  place  ;    the  ploughs  cut 
their  furrows  through  lands  which,  from  an  agricultural 
point  of  view,  ought  never  to  have  been  tilled  at  all.  9 
Then,  from  1835  or  1840  down  to  our  own  times,  we  have, 
as  in  the  eighteenth  century,  a  general  substitution  of 
pasturage  for  corn  land.      This  change  has  taken  place 
under  the  influence  of  Free  Trade  and  the  competition 
of  foreign  grain,  as  also  under  the  pressure  of  the  agrarian 
agitation  and  the  selfishness  of  the  landlords.     During 
the  last  sixty  years  the  cultivated  land  has  considerably 
increased  in  England  and  Scotland  ;    in  Ireland  it  has 
decreased  by  half,  and  the  art  of  tillage  is  now  almost 
lost  in  certain  districts.1  o     Of  land  fit  for  cultivation  in 
England  53.5  per  cent,  is  pasture,  in  Wales  68  per  cent., 
in  Scotland  28  per  cent.,  in  Ireland  81  per  cent.      In 
France,  on  the  contrary,  55  per  cent,  of  the  cultivable 
land  is  under  the  plough,  in  Belgium  seven-eighths,  and  in 
Denmark  one-half  ;   while  Wurtemburg  and  Saxony  have 
two-thirds  and  four-fifths  respectively  of  their  total  area 
in  cultivation.    But  as  for  Ireland,  official  statistics  show 
only  3,038,072  acres,  or  about  19  per  cent,  of  her  i5,536,75r 
acres,  under  cultivation."    Even  these  figures  do  not  tell 

8  Lecky  op.  cit.,  IL,  245  and  246.  A  law  of  1735  exempted  the 
pasture  lands  from  ecclesiastical  tithes  {lb.). 

9  Agric.  Stat.   1902,  p.  xiii. 

10  This  is  the  opinion  of  an  official  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
and  Technical  Instruction  {Journal,  December,  1903,  p.  198) — Agric. 
Stat.  1903,  p.  2,  table  B  ;  the  area  cropped  (other  than  clover  and 
meadow  land)  in  i860  amounted  to  21  per  cent,  of  the  whole  superficies 
of  the  country  ;    in  1903  it  amounted  only  to  n  per  cent. 

11  Agric.  Stat.,  pp.  2  to  4.  This  statistical  return  gives  4,634,973 
acres  under  crops,  but  from  these  figures  we  must  deduct  (as  the  editor 
of  the  return  observes)  1,596,906  acres  classed  under  the  heading: — 
hay  mown  on  permanent  pasture.  There  are  in  Ireland  304,052  acres 
of  woods  and  plantations.  The  statistics  relating  to  the  United 
Kingdom  are  drawn  from  the  Agric.  Stat.  1900,  p.  ix.    Those  concerning 


232  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

the  whole  story.  They  do  not  tell  us  that  pasture  has 
taken  the  best  of  the  land,  leaving  the  worst  to  agriculture. 
In  Ireland,  the  richer  the  land  the  smaller  is  the  population 
to  be  found  on  it.  The  poorer  tracts  are  cultivated  and 
peopled,  the  richer  are  kept  for  grazing,  and  deserted. 
Nor  do  our  statistics  tell  us  that  when  the  best  lands, 
such  as  those  of  Meath  or  Limerick,  had  been  converted 
into  pasture,  the  graziers  turned  to  those  of  inferior 
quality  which  were,  by  nature,  unfit  for  cattle  breeding, 
and  would,  according  to  experts,  have  given  twice  as  good 
results  under  the  plough.12  Finally  we  may  add,  an  the 
authority  of  the  same  experts,^  cattle-breeding  "  has  not 
progressed  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  landed  wealth 
absorbed  by  pasture."  J4  Doubtless,  there  has  been  a 
great  increase  in  the  number  of  live  stock  during  the  last 
sixty  years.  In  1841  there  were  1,863,000  head  of  cattle  ; 
in  1903  the  number  amounted  to  4,664,112.  In  1841 
Ireland  possessed  2,106,000  head  of  sheep  ;  in  1903  she 
had  3,944,6o4.I5  But  the  number  of  milch  cows  has 
remained  stationary  at  about  a  million  and  a  half  ;  in 
fact  it  has  a  tendency  to  diminish.  The  exportation  of 
cattle  has  not  sensibly  augmented  during  the  last  thirty 
years.16  The  productivity  of  the  pasturage,  as  estimated 
in  terms  of  head  of  cattle  to  the  acre,  has  not  appreciably 
increased  during  the  same  period.  Though  her  area  under 
grazing  is  more  than  eleven  times  that  of  Belgium,  Ireland 
possesses  hardly  more  than  three  times  the  amount  of 
cattle  in  that  country.1?  Ireland  has  not  only  done  too 
much  cattle  breeding  during  the  last  sixty  years,  but  she 
has  done  it  badly.    The  industry  is  one  that  needs  delicate 

the  continental  nations  have  been  given  by  Mr.  Th.  Kennedy  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Statistical  and  Social  Inquiry  Society  of  Ireland,  52nd 
session,  p.  399-400. 

12  Journal  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  December  1903,  p.  197-193. 
Agric.  Stat.   1902,  pp.  vii.,  xii.,  xiii. 

*3  Agric.  Stat.   1900,  p.  ix.  ;     1902,  p.  ix. 
T4  Agric.  Stat.  1900,  p.  ix.  ;    1903,  p.  19. 
x5  Agric.  Stat.  1902,  p.  x.  and  xiv. 
ï6  Agric.  Stat.  1902,  p.  xii. 
J7  Agric.  Stat.  1900,  p.  ix. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  233 

handling  ;  it  has  been  ill-directed  and  specialised  to  such 
a  degree  that  the  rural  economy  of  Ireland  has  been 
reduced  to  a  most  precarious  condition.18 

A  partial  return  to  agriculture,  which  is  the  course  of 
action  now  preached  by  all  specialists,10  has  thus  become 
a  necessary  and  preliminary  condition  of  any  solution  of 
the  Irish  agrarian  question.  To  recapitulate  :  Ireland  at 
the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  made 
excessive  use  of  tillage  ;  during  the  second  half  of  the 
century  she  has  swung  to  the  other  extreme  and 
made  excessive  use  of  grazing.  Since  i860,  nearly 
two  million  acres  out  of  a  little  over  four  millions  have 
gone  out  of  cultivation  ;  20  and  this  excessive  reaction, 
by  augmenting  the  competition  for  the  land,  has  largely 


18  For  this  reason.  Cattle  breeding,  as  is  well  known,  admits  of 
two  distinct  branches  :— the  "  raising  "  of  the  beast,  and  then  its 
"  fattening."  Landlords  and  graziers  do  some  fattening  on  the  good 
lands  of  Meath  and  Limerick.  But  the  branch  to  which  Ireland 
principally  devotes  herself  is  the  raising  or  rearing  of  stock,  with  the 
view  of  eventually  selling  to  English  or  Scotch  breeders,  who  will  then 
undertake  the  fattening.  Thus  it  comes  that  out  of  1,300,000  beasts 
representing  the  increase  in  Irish  cattle  since  1861,  almost  half  is 
represented  by  animals  less  than  a  year  old.  Two-thirds  of  the  animals 
exported  from  Ireland  are  young  beasts,  not  fattened.  (Agric.  Stat. 
1902,  p.  x  and  following  pages.  Cf.  Ireland  Industrial  and  Agricultural, 
Dublin,  1902,  p.  322  and  following).  This  specialisation  involves 
serious  dangers  for  Ireland.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  well  known  that 
while  "  fattening  "  is  profitable  for  the  soil,  the  "  raising  "  of  cattle 
exhausts  it  by  taking  from  it  the  fertilising  elements  without  making 
any  return.  Of  the  two  operations  Ireland  has  undertaken  the  more 
onerous  ;  the  more  profitable  goes  to  benefit  Great  Britain.  Besides 
this  if  a  contagious  disease  should  break  out  among  the  cattle  in  Ireland, 
the  English  ports  will  be  closed  to  Irish  exporters.  Finally,  one  may 
foresee  that  England,  which  at  present  forbids  the  importation  of 
foreign  cattle  "  on  foot  "  (foreign  cattle  must  be  slaughtered  at  the 
ports  of  entry),  will  some  day  see  herself  obliged  to  open  her  doors 
to  the  great  oversea  producers,  Argentina  and  Canada.  The  privilege 
now  enjoyed  by  Ireland  will  then  disappear,  and  this  will  mean  the 
ruin  of  Irish  cattle  breeding. 

J9  Journal  of  the  Department  of  Agricxdture,  December,  1903,  p.  202. 
Some  authorities  also  recommend  the  fattening  of  cattle  under  care 
(house  feeding),  as  a  means  of  placing  the  cattle-breeding  industry  on 
a  sounder  basis,  and  for  this  purpose  they  advise  the  cultivation  of 
crops  fit  for  fodder  under  a  carefully  arranged  system  of  mixed  farming, 
such  as  is  practised  in  Scotland,  in  Belgium,  etc. 

20  Agric.  Stat.,  1903,  p.  2.  The  area  of  land  under  crops  in  i860 
(other  than  meadow  land  and  clover)  was  4,375,621  acres  ;  in  1903, 
2,410,813  acres. 


234  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

contributed  to  the  second  great  plague  of  Irish  agriculture, 
namely,  the  sub-division  of  holdings. 

This    custom    of    dividing    up     the    farms    was   not 
in     reality     an    outcome      of    the     Clearances,     which, 
historically    speaking,     it    preceded.      It   is     the     direct 
product   of     that      great     economic    fact,    the    absence 
of    industries,    which    results    in    a   universal    scramble 
for    the    land  ;     for    land    which    is    again  and  again 
parcelled    out     until    it    is    reduced    to    mere    "  dust." 
In  1845,  before  the  Great  Famine,  the  system  of  sub- 
division was  worse  than  at  any  other  time.     Emigration 
tended  to  reduce  it,  by  reducing  at  one  and  the  same 
time  the  numbers  of  the  population  and  the  demand  for 
the  land  ;    but  the  Clearances   then  re-established   and 
perpetuated  it,  by  restricting  the  supply  of  land,  owing 
to  their  development  of  grazing.      Emigration,  however, 
has  proved  an  even  stronger  force  than  the  Clearances,  so 
that  in  spite  of  all  other  influences,  the  sub-division  of 
holdings  has  decreased  throughout  Ireland  during  the  last 
sixty  years.     In  184 1  there  were  691,202  holdings  of  over 
an    acre,    the    total    population    of   the    country    being 
8,175,124.       In    1901,    with    a    population    reduced    to 
4,458,775,  there  were  but  515,847  holdings  of  this  size. 
In  1841  just  80.5  per  cent,  of  these  holdings  consisted  of 
plots  of  under  15  acres,  in  1901  the  proportion  had  sunk 
to  42.1  per  cent.21      From  these  figures  we  can  realise 
the  improvement  that  has  taken  place  as  regards  the 
dividing  up  of  the  land,  but  we  see  also  the  price  which 
Ireland  has  had  to  pay  for  this  improvement, — the  loss, 
namely,  of  almost  half  her  population. 

In  spite  of  this  progress,  more  apparent,  perhaps,  than 
real,  there  still  remains  in  Ireland  a  disastrous  plethora 
of  small  holdings.  It  is  easy  to  be  misled  by  the  statistics 
on  this  point.  Doubtless,  they  prove  that  Ireland  is  a 
country  of  little  farms  and  petty  culture  ;  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  side  by  side  with  these,  there  are  to  be 
found  great  wastes  of  grazing  land,  immense  latifundia, 

21  Agric.  Stat.,   1903,  p.   17. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION 


235 


deserted  and  bare.22  They  certainly  show  that  out  of 
544,625  cultivators  there  are  388,802,  or  about  71  per 
cent.,  who  are  working  on  holdings  of  less  than  30  acres, 
and  who,  all  told,  do  not  occupy  more  than  4,792,561 
acres,  or  23.5  per  cent,  of  the  surface  of  the  land  in 
Ireland. 23  But  is  this  a  degree  of  sub-division  which,  on 
the  face  of  it,  can  be  called  excessive  ?  Have  we  not  in 
France  4,852,963  agricultural  farms  (say  85  per  cent,  of 
their  number)  of  less  than  25  acres,  occupying  all  told 
only  25.5  per  cent,  of  the  surface  of  the  country  ?  24 
What  is  it  then  that  aggravates  matters  in  Ireland  and 
renders  the  situation  so  critical  ?  The  cause  lies  first  in 
the  fact  that,  as  a  general  rule,  "  the  majority  of  the 
land  in  the  possession  of  these  small  farmers  is  second 
rate,  or  inferior,  land,  and  not,  as  is  generally  the  case  in 
such    countries    as    Belgium,    the    best     soil."25       The 

22  Agi.   Stat.,    1903,   P-  xx. 


Holdings  of 

Numl 
Occupiers 

>er  of 
Holdings 

Area  in 

Acres 

(estimated) 

Percentage  of 
total  number  of 

Occ'pr's|Hold'gs 

CD  -^   M 

Less  than     1  acre 

73,926 

74,890 

37,445 

13-6    j     127 

0-2 

1  to            5  acres 

55,771 

62,292 

186,876 

102 

10-5 

09 

5  to           15    „ 

137,832 

154,631 

1,546,310 

25-3 

26-2 

7  6 

15  to            30    ,, 

121,273 

134,308 

3,021,930 

22  3 

22"7 

14-8 

30  to           50    ., 

67,897 

74,366 

2,974,640 

12-5 

12-6 

14-6 

50  to         100    ,, 

51,108 

57,446 

4,308,450 

9-9 

9-7 

21-2 

100  to         200    ,, 

22,763 

23,058 

3,458,700 

42 

3-9 

17-0 

200  to         500    „ 

8,856 

8.141 

2.849,350 

1-6 

1-4 

14-0 

More  than  500    ,, 

2,199 

1,516 

1,967,024 

0-4 

0-3 

9-7 

544,625 

590,648 

20,350,725 

100-0 

100-0 

100-0 

23  To  be  accurate  one  ought  to  deduct  from  this  total  the  73,926 
occupiers  of  less  than  an  acre,  whose  holdings  are  not  properly 
agricultural  ;  they  are  gardens,  town-plots,  country  labourers'  cottages, 
etc.      (Cf.  Agric.  Stat.,   1903,  p.  xvii). 

24  Agricultural  Statistics  of  1897.  In  Belgium  out  of  829,625  farms, 
734,874  are  under  5  hectares  (\2\  acres).  In  Wurtemburg,  280,268 
out  of  306,643  are  under  10  hectares  (25  acres);  in  Saxony,  164,537 
out  of  193,708  [Agric.  Stat.,  1902,  p.  xxviii.).  Cf.  De  Foville,  le 
Morcellement,  Paris,   1885,  p.  233. 

25  Agric.  Stat.,  1903,  p.  xviii. 


236  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

Clearances,  as  we  have  said,  took  the  best  of  the  land  in 
order  to  turn  it  into  grazing,   and  left  the  rest  to  the 
peasantry.      Moreover,  these  small  holdings  are  usually 
composed  of  a  large  number  of  minute  parcels  of  land, 
inextricably  entangled  in  those  of  the  next-door  neighbour, 
so  as  to  render  cultivation  as  inconvenient  as  possible. 
There  is  no  country  in  which  redistribution  would  seem 
more  necessary.     Let  us  take  an  estate  in  King's  County 
as  an  illustration.26     On  this  estate  there  is  a  holding  of 
16  acres  parcelled  out  into  13  sub-divisions  ;    another  of 
10  acres  parcelled  out  into  15  sub-divisions  ;    a  third  of 
12  acres  with  16  sub-divisions,  and  so  forth  ;    all  these 
sub-divisions  being  inter-tangled  with  one  another.      We 
take  another  example  in  the  County  of  Clare  :    we  find 
there  77  holdings,  of  which  6  only  are  rated  at  above  £10, 
all  consisting  of  patches  of  ground,  detached  from  one 
another,  and  often  a  mile  or  two  apart.     Many  holdings 
include  20  or  30  sub-divisions  of  which  many  are  held  in 
common  by  several  tenants. 27     We  may  quote  here  some 
further  statistics  from  the  Census  of  1901.    Out  of  490,301 
holdings  enumerated  in  the  Census,  134,182,  that  is,  27 
per  cent.,  are  rated  at  less  than  £4  ;    275,344,  or  56  per 
cent.,  are  rated  at  less  than  £10  ;    335,491,  or  68.5  per 
cent,   (more  than  two-thirds)  are  rated  at  under  £15  a 
year.28      We  here  lay  our  finger  on  that  plague  to  which 
the  Irish  have  given  a  name  that  is  at  the  same  time  a 
picture,  agrarian  "  congestion."       This  is  the  streaming 
together  of  the  peasant  population  into  certain  districts, 
where  it  is  overcrowded  on  holdings  too  small  and  land 
too  poor  to  feed  it,  while  the  remainder  of  the  country- 
side stretches  out  on  all  sides,  a  waste  of  grass  with  no 
sign  of  human  life  on  it,  depopulated,  and,  so  to  speak, 
squeezed  dry  of  blood. 

26  Mr.  Wyndham,  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  in  Parliament, Hansard, 
25th  March,  1902.  We  may  add  that  there  are  no  "  commons  "  in 
Ireland,  a  fact  that  makes  life  harder  for  the  peasant. 

27  Extract  from  a  Judgment  of  the  Estates  Commissioners  of  January 
19th,  1905.     Dooras  and  Kinvara  estate. 

28  Census,  190 1,  p.  16-17. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  237 

What  is,  in  reality,  the  minimum  limit,  below  which 
sub-division  becomes  excessive  ?  Take  as  the  unit  of 
cultivation,  to  employ  a  common  method,  the  area  of 
land  that  a  family  of  peasants  can  cultivate  by  their 
own  unaided  efforts  without  outside  help,  and  which,  in 
return,  produces  enough  to  feed  them  without  their  being 
compelled  to  seek  work  elsewhere.  All  agricultural 
undertakings  on  a  smaller  scale  than  this  limit  would  be 
contrary  to  the  laws  of  sound  rural  economy  ;  they  would 
be  uneconomic.  The  minimum  extent  of  this  unit  of 
cultivation  naturally  varies  according  to  the  situation  and 
the  quality  of  the  soil,  or  according  to  the  economic 
condition  of  the  country.  In  view  of  the  general  poverty 
of  the  country  the  Irish  are  inclined  to  fix  this  limit  very 
high.29  Taking  into  account  present  conditions,  and  pic- 
turing to  ourselves,  on  the  other  hand,  an  Ireland  in  which 
the  agrarian  question  has  been  settled  ;  an  Ireland  in 
which  cultivation  could  develop  on  modern  lines,  with 
technical  education  and  co-operation,  such  as,  indeed,  we 
are  already  beginning  to  see,3o  We  might,  I  think,  fix  15 
acres  as  the  minimum  for  an  "  economic  "  farm. 3*  On 
this  basis  we  find  in  Ireland  291,813  holdings  below  the 
minimum,  out  of  a  total  of  590,648.  Deduct  from  this 
number  the  74,890  holdings  of  less  than  an  acre,  which 
represent  gardens,  labourers'  cottages,  and  the  like,  which 
are  not  in  reality  agricultural  farms,  and  there  remain 
216,923  holdings  below  the  limit.  These  "  dwarf  "  hold- 
ings, which  are  uneconomic,  impracticable,  and  insufficient 
to  support  a  family,  form  about  two-fifths  of  the  total 
number  of  agricultural  holdings  in  Ireland. 32      Many  of 

29  An  expert  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  estimated  a  short 
time  ago  that  in  order  to  be  "  economic  "  a  farm  in  Ireland  ought 
not  to  consist  of  less  than  30  acres  (25  when  within  reach  of  towns)  ; 
this  would  give  us  350,000  small  holdings  below  the  minimum,  without 
including  holdings  of  less  than  an  acre  (Journal  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture.  December,   1903,  p.   199). 

30  See  Part  III. 

31  This  is  the  figure  given  by  M.  de  Lavergne  (Revue  des  Deux  Mondes, 
December  1st,   1867,  p.  750). 

32  There  is  another  method  of  calculation  which  gives  the  results  at 
a  rather  higher  figure;    according  to  the  Census  of   I90i,p.  17,  there 


238  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

them  are  massed  together  in  the  West,33  in  the  province 
of  Connaught,  and  the  counties  of  Kerry  and  Donegal. 
The  others  are  spread  throughout  the  whole  country  ; 
one  finds  them  in  the  very  middle  of  the  rich  lands  of 
Leinster,  in  Protestant  Ulster  and  in  Catholic  Munster 
alike.  Their  owners  are  not  "  professional  "  farmers,  but 
peasants  who  were  born  on  the  soil  and  have  no  other 
means  of  livelihood  but  a  tiny  and  inadequate  scrap  of 
land.  These  are  the  cottiers,  or  crofters  as  they  are  called 
in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  (where  a  few  of  them  are 
to  be  found),  who  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  possess  none 
of  the  capacities  for  methodical  cultivation,  but  search 
here  and  there  for  a  living,  and  supply  their  wants  by 
hiring  out  their  labour.  To  them  farming  is  a  secondary 
consideration.  Reduce  their  rent  by  50  per  cent.,  even 
abolish  it  altogether,  and  you  would  have  made  but  little 
improvement  in  their  condition.  The  main  point  in  the 
case  of  these  200,000  peasants  is  that  their  holdings  are 
too  small  to  afford  a  living.  The  special  problem  of 
Ireland  is  to  increase  these  holdings  so  as  to  make  them 
economic.  The  Irish  agrarian  question  will  not  be  solved 
until  a  remedy  has  been  found  for  the  excessive  sub- 
division of  the  land,  and  a  method  formulated  of 
increasing  these  "dwarf"  holdings. 


III. — General  Data  of  the  Problem  (Continued). 

Let  us  now  consider  the  other  side  of  the  problem,  the 
other  factor  o!:  the  equation  ;  the  thirteen  or  fourteen 
thousand  landlords.     These  numbers  represent  the  small 

are  275,344  holdings  rated  at  less  than  £10,  this  figure  of  £10  being 
taken  as  the  minimum  rate  of  a  holding  sufficient  to  feed  a  family. 
Deduct  from  this  number  29,037  holdings  of  less  than  an  acre  (p.  16 
of  the  Census),  and  there  remain  246,307  uneconomic  holdings.  The 
eminent  economist,  Father  Finlay,  by  another  method  of  calculation 
which  was  more  scientific  but  more  complicated,  estimated  the  number 
of  uneconomic  holdings  at  225,000  after  deducting  the  holdings  of  less 
than  one  acre  (New  Ireland  Review,  July,  1903,  p.  313). 
33  Infra.,  Chap.  III.      The  Problem  of  the  West. 


THE   LAND    QUESTION  239 

class  of  great  proprietors,  who,  out  of  their  vast  estates, 
let  one  portion,  the  cultivated  portion,  to  peasants  or 
tenants  ;  but  reserve  for  themselves  personally  their 
mansion  or  castle,  their  demesne  or  private  estate,  and 
the  pasture  lands  which  they  hire  out  every  year  to  the 
cattle-breeders  or  graziers.  Out  of  these  thirteen  or 
fourteen  thousand  landlords1  there  are  17  individuals  who 
each  own  more  than  50,000  acres,  90  who  own  from 
20,000  to  50,000  acres,  and  637  who  own  from  5,000  to 
20,000  acres.  Between  them  these  744  landlords  possess 
10,112,000  acres,  or  more  than  half  the  surface  of  the 
soil.  Many  of  the  landlords  have  on  their  estates  several 
hundreds  of  tenants  ;  plenty  of  them  have  several 
thousands.  Ireland  is  a  land  of  small  farms  ;  but  she  is 
also,  like  England,2  a  land  of  very  large  properties. 

These  properties  are  the  offspring  of  confiscation.  This 
is  true  beyond  doubt,  but  the  same  remark  applies  to  all 
landed  property.  In  every  portion  of  the  world  it 
dates  its  origin  from  conquest  :  everywhere,  too,  it  has 
been  legitimised  by  prescription,  by  transfer,  and  by 
mutual  trust.  We  may  fairly  ask,  then,  what  special 
difference  is  there  between  the  case  of  Ireland  and  that 
of  other  countries  ?  The  difference  lies  in  this  fact,  that 
the  new  masters  of  the  soil  have  never  allowed  themselves 
to  become  assimilated,  or  "  nationalised  "  by  the 
conquered  people  from  whom  they  were  separated  by 
their  race,  by  their  faith,  and  by  the  fact  that  in  Ireland 

1  The  above  are  only  the  landlords  properly  so-called,  that  is  to  say, 
proprietors  of  estates  leased  (or  which  had  been  leased  before  the  land- 
purchase  laws)  to  tenants.  We  omit  all  other  land  owners,  such  as 
landed  proprietors  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  but  without 
tenants,  proprietors  who  work  their  own  land,  former  tenants  now 
become  proprietors  of  their  holdings,  etc.  The  above  figures  are  from 
the  Doomsday  Register,  which  was  drawn  up  in  1872- 187 5,  and  comprised, 
in  all,  68,711  landowners  of  whom  36,144  were  owners  of  less  than  an 
acre,  and  of  whom  14,150  were  owners  of  over  100  acres,  and  between 
them  had  in  their  hands  97.5  per  cent,  of  the  total  superficial  area  of 
Ireland  ;  the  last-named  are  the  true  landlords,  whose  numbers  have 
fallen  during  the  last  30  years  as  a  consequence  of  Land  Purchase  Acts. 
Three  Irish  landlords  are  owners  of  more  than  100,000  acres.  Cf. 
Thorn's  Official  Directory,   1903,  pp.  773,   793,  and  794. 

2  Still  more  so  than  England.  See  the  figures  pertaining  to  England 
in  A.  de  Foville,  Le  Morcellement,  p.  35,  and  in  Shaw  Lefevre,  Agrarian 
Tenures,  p.   14,  etc. 


240  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

they  have  always  constituted  the  "  English  Garrison." 
Anglo-Saxon  in  heart  and  interest,  they  accepted  the 
profits  but  not  the  duties  that  came  to  them  with  their 
Irish  concessions.  As  absentees,  they  have  had  no  aim 
in  Ireland  beyond  drawing  their  rents.  Or  else  they  have 
speculated  and  traded  in  their  title  deeds,  and  passed 
them  on  to  middlemen,  who  in  their  turn  handed  them 
over  to  others.  This  fact  explains  why  at  the  present 
time  we  find  established  on  one  and  the  same  estate, 
behind  the  landlord  de  facto,  who  is  merely  a  usufructuary, 
a  whole  ladder  of  legally  instituted  landlords,  super- 
imposed one  above  the  other,  and  each  paying  a  rent  to 
his  antecedent  in  title,  until  at  length  we  succeed  in 
discovering  at  the  summit  of  this  pyramid  the  original 
grantee  of  the  Crown,  or  indeed  the  Crown  itself.3  One 
and  all  they  have  regarded  Irish  land  purely  as  a 
speculation,  not  as  a  home  ;  they  have  remained 
conquerors  in  a  conquered  country.  Hence  it  has  resulted 
that  being  conscious  of  their  position  as  strangers  and 
intruders,  they  have,  as  a  rule,  considered  themselves 
entirely  quit  of  any  natural  debt  toward  the  country, 
and  equally  free  from  all  the  duties  of  ownership. 

For  instance,  the  Irish  landlord,  as  a  general  rule,  has 
never  advanced  a  penny  of  capital,  nor  put  a  farthing 
into  the  land.  He  has  let  to  the  peasant  not  a  farm 
ready  to  be  cultivated  but  mere  soil,  raw  earth.  The 
peasant  has  had  to  do  everything  else  ;  he  has  made  the 
roads,  built  the  cottage  or  hovel,  cleared  and  drained  the 
land,  and  built  the  fences.  This  has  been  a  subject  of 
constant  comment  in  Ireland  from  Burke,  in  the  eighteenth 
century,4  to  the  celebrated  Devon  Commission  in  1845. 
The  exceptions  merely  prove  the  rule.  "  One  could  count 
on  one's  fingers,"  said  Lord  Cowper  in  1887,  "  the  number 
of  Irish  estates  on  which  the  improvements  have  been 
made  by  the  landlord."  5 

3  The  Crown  possesses  Quit  Rents  or  Crown  Rents. 

4  Quoted  by  Matthew  Arnold,  Irish  Essays,  p.  28. 

5  House  of  Lords,  2nd  May,  1887. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  241 

Why  is  this  so  ?  Firstly,  because  of  the  complications 
arising  out  of  the  smallness  and  the  great  number  of 
holdings  on  the  same  estate.  But  more  especially  because 
the  landlord,  having  come  to  Ireland  in  order  to  make 
money,  and  finding  himself  "  dumped  "  down  on  a  con- 
fiscated estate  the  ownership  of  which  was  anything  but 
assured  to  him,  never  cared  to  risk  any  capital  in  it, 
To  draw  an  income  from  it,  well  and  good  ;  but  to  invest 
one's  own  funds  in  it,  certainly  not  !  Besides  this,  it  was 
all  the  more  to  his  interest  to  get  the  tenants  to  do 
everything,  seeing  that  it  was  precisely  by  this  means 
that  he  retained  his  bold  over  them.  The  capital  which 
they  had  invested  in  the  soil,  their  expenditure  on  it,  the 
houses  they  built,  the  enclosures,  the  drainage,  all  became 
his  property  according  to  the  law,  and  accrued  in  fact  to 
him  as  the  owner  of  the  land.  Not  only  did  he  thus 
benefit  by  the  fruit  of  their  labour,  but  he  actually  kept 
them  at  his  mercy  through  the  results  of  this  labour. 
Feeling  thoroughly  assured  that  the  tenant  would  do  his 
utmost  to  remain  on  the  land,  he  raised  his  rents,  raised 
them  in  fact  all  the  more  according  to  the  scale  and  value 
of  the  improvements.  In  this  manner  he  stood  to  gain, 
in  either  way,  without  trouble  and  without  risk. 

He  is  not,  one  sees,  an  ordinary  landlord,  or  a  bona  fide 
landlord  such  as  one  finds  in  England,  where  men  of  this 
class  have  spent  on  investments  in  landed  property  a 
sum  estimated  at  £700,000,000.6  He  has  never  returned 
to  the  soil  anything  of  what  the  soil  gave  him.  He  is 
only  a  bare  proprietor  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word,  a 
dead  weight  on  the  land.  One  can  easiiy  conceive  that 
under  these  conditions  the  ancient  Celtic  idea;  the  idea  of 
co-ownership  of  the  land  by  members  of  the  clam  so  far 
from  disappearing  out  of  the  mind  of  the  peasant,  has 
on  the  contrary,  tended  to  become  rooted  there.  Is  it 
not  he,  the  tenant,  who  has  erected  of  his  own  initiative 
everything  that  stands  above  the  bare  soil  ?     Is  it  not  he 

6  New  Ireland  Review,  September,  1897,  p.  45      Article  by  Mr.  E. 
Greer,  Legal  Land  Commissioner, 

R 


242  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

who  has  given  to  that  soil  a  value  which  but  for  him  it 
would  not  possess  ?  Is  he  not,  therefore,  something  more 
than  a  mere  lessee  :  has  he  not  real  rights  in  the  land 
analogous  to  those  of  an  associate  or  co-proprietor? 
Moreover,  this  tenant-right,  the  foundation  of  which  lies 
in  the  value  that  the  tenant  added  to  the  land,  is  by  no 
means  a  myth.  Throughout  Ulster,  custom  has  given  it 
the  force  of  law,  and  even  outside  Ulster  tenant-right  has 
a  market  value  and  can  be  bought  and  sold.  From  this 
train  of  thought  it  is  but  a  short  step  to  the  idea  that  the 
landlord  has  himself  forfeited  his  rights,  that  prescription 
has  operated,  not  in  his  favour,  but  against  him.  The 
more  we  improve  the  land,  say  the  tenants,  the  more  does 
he  raise  our  rents.  For  generations  we  have  paid  rents 
to  the  landlord  on  a  value  which  we  ourselves  created. 
We  have  therefore  paid  him  off  what  is  due  to  him,  and 
it  is  we  who  are  now  the  true  proprietors  of  the  soil.  I 
do  not  say  that  this  idea  is  general  ;  but  it  exists  in 
many  places.  What  a  splendid  illustration  it  would  have 
furnished  to  the  author  of  that  celebrated  saying 
"Property  is  Theft"! 

We  may  go  farther  and  may  say  that,  generally 
speaking,  the  Irish  landlords  have  not  fulfilled  any  of 
those  duties,  whether  material  or  moral,  which  have 
always  been  so  well  attended  to  by  landowners  in 
England.  Whether  Catholic  or  Protestant,  with  a  few 
honourable  exceptions,  they  have  done  nothing  for  the 
interests  of  the  peasant  or  the  country.  Even  now-a-days, 
in  one  out  of  every  three  cases  they  are  absentees  ;  many 
of  them  have  never  been  seen  by  their  tenants,  and  some 
of  them  have  never  even  seen  Ireland.  Through  their 
agents,  that  is  to  say,  through  irresponsible  managers  who 
regulate,  from  an  office,  the  affairs  of  a  whole  county, 
with  all  the  severity,  and  all  the  financial  exactitude  of 
officials  ;  through  the  little  world  of  subordinates — 
bailiffs,  writ  servers,  bog  rangers,  and  rent  warners — who 
live  upon  landlordism  and  exploit  it,  they  keep  the  whole 
country  under  a  yoke  of  tyranny  and  corruption. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  243 

Doubtless  there  have  been,  and  there  are,  among  the 
Irish  landlords,  kind-hearted  men  who  have  tried  to  do 
good  to  those  around  them.  Doubtless  also  among  the 
very  worst  landlords  we  must  reckon  Corporations  and 
Public  Institutions  such  as  Trinity  College,  or  novi  homines, 
business  men  and  speculators  planted  upon  the  soil  of 
Ireland  by  the  Encumbered  Estates  Act  of  1849  ;  and 
here  as  elsewhere,  the  system  is  more  to  blame  than  the 
individual.  Landlordism  has  been  more  odious  than  the 
landlords  themselves.  We  have  here  a  set  of  men  whom 
conquest  planted  in  the  country  as  a  dominant  race,  men 
to  whom  the  law  granted  absolute  power,  and  circum- 
stances gave  a  monopoly  of  the  land  :  can  we  be 
astonished  if  they  exploit  the  situation  ?  Some  abuse  of 
their  rights  was  inevitable  ;  but  we  must  add  that  it 
has  been  odious.  The  Irish  landlords  have  traded  on  the 
peasants'  "  land  hunger,"  and  on  the  peasants  themselves, 
to  the  utmost  point  of  exaction.  At  the  time  of  the 
Great  Clearances,  when  they  wanted  to  rid  themselves  at 
one  blow  of  their  poverty-stricken  tenants  and  their  Poor 
Rates,  they  showed  an  appalling  want  of  humanity.  The 
times  are  now  past  when,  after  the  operation  of  the 
Crowbar  Brigade,  they  used  to  drench  the  hovels  with 
paraffin  so  as  to  make  them  burn,  and  when  the  vengeance 
of  the  landlord  pursued  the  evicted  in  their  flight, 
forbidding  other  tenants  to  take  them  in,  under  penalty 
of  being  themselves  evicted.  But  even  to-day  landlords 
see  nothing  wrong  in  embarking  on  campaigns  of 
gratuitous  evictions,  turning  out  the  sick  and  their 
children  even  when  it  is  clear  that  the  rent  is  too  high. 
Whether  it  be  for  evicting  tenants,  seizing  their  goods,  or 
selling  them,  they  have  always  laid  claim  to  have  all  the 
forces  of  the  State  at  their  disposal.  When  an  Under- 
Secretary  of  State,  Thomas  Drummond,  ventured  to 
remind  them  in  a  sentence  which  is  now  celebrated  that 
"  Property  has  its  duties  as  well  as  its  rights,"  they 
merely  shrugged  their  shoulders  ;  but  they  were  shocked 
when  a  brave  soldier  like  General  Sir  Redvers  Buller  in 


244  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

1886,  or  a  statesman  in  sympathy  with  Ireland  like  Mr. 
John  Morley,  refused  to  help  them  with  armed  forces  in 
carrying  out  some  particularly  repugnant  ejectments  and 
evictions. 

The  price  of  tyranny  is  corruption,  and  the  Irish  land- 
lords have  been  obliged  to  pay  it.  Until  the  Great  Famine 
they  had  for  the  most  part  lived  recklessly  ;  that  great 
national  misfortune  ruined  one  out  of  every  three,  and 
left  the  other  two  stranded.  There  are  few  estates  which 
are  not  mortgaged  to  English  companies,  some  of  them 
up  to  as  much  as  twice  their  market  value.  It  is  commonly 
calculated  that.  Irish  land  is,  as  a  whole,  charged  to  at 
least  half  of  its  value,  Then  there  are  other  charges 
that  fall  on  the  landlord  :  those  resulting  from  settlements 
and  entails.  The  land  of  Ireland,  like  that  of  England,  is 
almost  entirely  bound  by  settlement,  a  fact  which  turns 
the  landlord  into  a  mere  tenant  for  life.  This  method 
has  succeeded  in  England  because  in  England  the 
aristocracy  is  rich  and  independent  ;  but  it  has  not  had 
the  same  success  in  Ireland,  where  the  landlord  has  usually 
no  personal  property  from  which  he  can  provide  suitable 
maintenance  for  the  younger  children  of  the  family. 
Family  charges,  mortgages,  the  rents  due  to  the  head 
landlord,  ecclesiastical  tithes,  these  give  one  some  idea  of 
the  burden  which  weighs  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  Irish 
landlord,  and  through  him  upon  those  of  the  tenant.  How 
could  Irish  property  fail  to  succumb  under  such  a  burden  ? 

These  then  are  the  special,  we  might  say  the  exceptional, 
or  even  unique,  features  of  the  agrarian  problem  in 
Ireland.  "  I  can  imagine  no  fault,"  said  the  Prime 
Minister  of  England,  speaking  a  short  time  ago  at  West- 
minster, "  attaching  to  any  ia.nd  system,  which  does  not 
attach  to  the  Irish  system."/  Ireland  suffers  all  the 
drawbacks  of  the  system  of  very  large  properties,  together 
with  all  those  appertaining  to  very  small  holdings,  without 
reaping  any  of  the  advantages  of  either  the  one  or  the 
other.     She  suffers  from  an  excess  cf  latijundia  and  also 

7  House  oi  Commons,  4th  May,   1903. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  245 

from  an  excessive  sub-division  of  land.  On  the  landlords' 
side  she  suffers  from  the  laws  of  primogeniture  and  entail, 
and  on  the  peasants'  side  from  constant  division  and 
sub-division  of  holdings.  She  stands  in  need  of  capital 
and  her  landlords  have  nothing  but  debts.  She  has  an 
agrarian  proletariat,  but  has  none  of  the  things  that  go 
to  make  life  easy  for  it  ;  and  is  without  any  of  these 
institutions  which  in  country  districts  form  a  safety-valve 
for  the  rights  of  property,  such  as  "  commons,"  rights  of 
grazing  or  of  pasture  and  the  like.  Every  problem,  even 
down  to  that  of  the  agricultural  labourers,  exists  in  Ireland. 
The  whole  country  seethes  with  the  fierce  competition 
among  the  farmers  beating  against  the  landlord  monopoly. 
What  steps  has  England  taken  to  find  a  remedy  for  this 
situation  ?8 


IV. — The  Act  of  1870. 

It  was  in  1870  that,  under  the  impulse  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  England  made  her  first  attempt  at  a  remedy. 
After  passing  so  many  Acts  in  favour  of  the  landlords  — 
there  had  been  no  less  than  32  between  1816  and  1843 — 

8  A  study  of  the  Agrarian  Question  in  Ireland  would  suggest 
comparisons  with  foreign  countries.  Want  of  space  forbids  our  entering 
upon  them  ;  but  we  may  say  that,  with  the  exception  of  Scotland, 
it  is  in  Sicily  and  Calabria  that  one  would  find  the  closest  points  of 
comparison. 

Besides  this  one  might  draw  a  parallel  with  the  evolution  of  the 
agrarian  question  in  England.  As  is  well  known,  England  by  a  curious 
divergence  in  her  history,  although  at  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century 
she  stood  in  advance  of  any  other  European  state  as  regards  her 
numerous  and  energetic  class  of  peasant  proprietors  or  yeomen,  has 
during  the  last  few  centuries  worked  out  an  agrarian  regime  very  closely 
resembling  that  which  legally  held  sway  in  Ireland  before  Mr.  Gladstone's 
reforms  35  years  ago.  How  is  it  that  this  system  of  free  contract  and 
free  competition  has  succeeded  in  maintaining  its  hold  on  England, 
whereas  in  Ireland  it  so  soon  became  impossible  ?  Simply  because  the 
circumstances  in  the  two  countries  were  entirely  different.  In  England 
the  farms  are  big,  the  farmers  are  well-to-do  men,  capitalists  ;  there 
is  little  competition,  the  surplus  of  workers  finding  employment  in 
industry  ;  the  landlords  are  resident,  and  they  have  always  invested 
a  good  deal  of  money  in  the  land.  Finally,  we  may  add,  proprietors  and 
cultivators  are  of  the  same  race  and  the  same  faith,  and  in  fact  are 
one  people.  In  Ireland  the  case  is,  as  we  have  endeavoured  to 
show,   exactly  contrary. 


246  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

she  had  then,  by  means  of  Deasy's  Act  in  i860, 
endeavoured  to  hold  the  balance  true  between  landlord 
and  tenant.  She  now  found  it  necessary  to  go  still  further, 
and  to  arm  the  tenants  against  the  landlords.  Many 
indeed  were  the  suggested  plans  of  reform,  all  of  which 
acknowledged  that  the  tenant  had  a  right  in  the  land, 
but  which  only  granted  him  a  more  or  less  incomplete 
protection  against  the  three  scourges  from  which  he 
suffered  :  insecurity  of  tenure,  confiscation  of  improve- 
ments, and  rack  rents.  On  the  other  hand,  foreigners 
such  as  G.  de  Beaumont,  or  the  German,  Raumer,  and 
Englishmen  such  as  John  Bright,  were  preaching  the 
buying  out  of  the  landlords  in  order  to  create  a  class  of 
peasant  proprietors.  With  the  latter  party  Gladstone 
admitted  his  theoretical  agreement  by  inserting  in  his 
new  Act  a  clause  relating  to  Land  Purchase.  As  regards 
the  others,  he  sanctioned  and  legalised  the  claims  of  the 
tenant  under  the  title  of  tenant  right,  taking  as  his  basis 
what  was  known  in  Ireland  as  the  Ulster  Custom.  This 
was  the  object  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870.1 

What  is  this  Ulster  Custom  ?  It  is  a  collection  of  local 
usages  dating  from  the  plantation  of  Ulster  by  James  I., 
and  is  an  institution  to  which  the  tenants  of  Ulster  are 
all  the  more  attached  because  it  forms  a  constant  point 
of  attack  for  the  landlords.  It  is  more  or  less  the  old 
programme  of  the  Tenant  League  of  1852,  the  programme 
called  the  three  F's  : — Free  Sale,  Fixity  of  Tenure  and 
Fair  Rent.  In  the  rest  of  Ireland  these  usages  were  not 
unknown.  The  tenants  often  sold  their  holdings  ;  but 
no  customary  right  had  as  yet  developed  similar  to  this 
"embryo  copyhold,"2  the  Ulster  Custom. 

By  the  Act  of  1870,  Mr.  Gladstone  legalised  the  Ulster 
Custom  where  it  existed,  and  established  for  all  the  rest 
of  Ireland  a  code  reproducing  its  essential  characteristics. 
The  Act  does  not  officially  declare  the  tenant  to  be  a 

1  33  and  34  Vic,  cap.  36. 

2  The  "  Embryo  Copyhold  "  is  the  name  given  by  Lord  Devon. 
Note  that  this  Ulster  custom  itself  did  not  develop  into  real  copyhold 
similar  to  the  English  custom  of  the  15th  and  16th  centuries. 


THE   LAND    QUESTION  247 

co-owner,  or  officially  recognise  in  him  any  real  right  ; 
it  proceeds  by  indirect  methods,  and  assures  to  him  the 
advantage  which  logically  speaking  must  flow  from  a 
tacit  recognition  of  his  co-ownership.  It  grants,  under 
certain  conditions,3  a  right  of  compensation  :  firstly,  for 
disturbance  in  case  of  arbitrary  eviction  ;  4  secondly,  for 
improvements  and  outlay  on  the  land  whether  by  the 
tenant  or  by  his  predecessors  in  title  ;  this,  with 
numerous  exceptions, 5  and  accompanied  by  a  clause  the 
principle  of  which  is  at  all  events  debateable,  providing 
that,  in  fixing  the  amount  of  the  tenant's  compensation 
period,  account  will  be  taken  of  the  time  during  which  he 
has  enjoyed  his  improvements  ;  thirdly,  for  the  loss  of  the 
price  paid  by  him  for  his  tenant  right,  that  is  to  say,  his 
right  to  use  the  farm,  in  cases  where  he  originally  bought 
that  tenant  right  and  where  the  landlord  refuses  him 
permission  to  sell  it.6 

3  As  regards  compensation  for  disturbance  the  Act  applies  only  to 
agricultural  holdings,  exclusive  of  the  demesnes  of  landlords  and  of 
town  parks  or  urban  holdings  ;  it  excludes  grazing  land  of  a  rateable 
value  of  ^50  or  over  on  which  the  tenant  does  not  reside.  Any 
contracting-out  of  their  privileges  under  this  Act  by  tenants  whose 
rateable  valuation  is  less  than  £50  is  held  to  be  null  and  void. 

4  Compensation  for  disturbance  can  be  claimed  by  yearly  tenants 
unless  their  tenancy  was  created  before  1870  and  is  above  a  rateable 
value  of  ^100  ;  and  also  by  leaseholders  who,  after  1870,  obtained 
leases  for  less  than  31  years.  It  does  not  apply  to  cases  of  eviction 
for  non-payment  of  rent  (except  in  a  few  particular  instances),  or  for 
non-compliance  with  statutory  conditions  as  to  the  tenancy  (Act  of 
1870,  sections  3  and  9). 

5  No  compensation  for  improvements  can  be  claimed  in  respect  of 
the  following  : — Firstly,  improvements  made  before  1870  and  more  than 
20  yeais  before  the  claim  (except  in  the  case  of  permanent  buildings 
and  clearances  of  land).  Secondly,  improvements  forbidden  in  writing 
by  the  landlord,  or  made  under  contract,  or  made  in  contravention  of 
a  contract  not  to  make  them,  or  indeed  those  which  the  landlord  has 
undertaken,  under  written  obligation,  to  do  himself. 

Tenants  under  a  lease  for  31  years  or  any  longer  period,  or  a  lease 
for  lives,  have  no  right  to  compensation  except  for  permanent  buildings 
and  clearances.  A  tenant  quitting  his  farm  voluntarily  has  no  right 
to  compensation  if  the  landlord  permits  the  tenant  to  sell  his  tenant- 
right.  The  compensation  can  only  be  claimed  when  the  tenant  is 
quitting  his  holding — when  the  improvements  are  presumed  to  have 
been  made  by  the  tenant  or  his  predecessors  in  title.  To  this  presump- 
tion, however,  there  are  certain  exceptions.  (Compare  the  Act  of 
1870,  sections  4,  5,  and  70). 

b  Compensation  under  this  head  cannot  be  claimed  if  the  tenant  has 
claimed  compensation  for  disturbance  or  compensation  under  the 
Ulster  Custom.      (Act  1870,  section  7). 


248  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

All  this  reads  very  well,  though  at  times  it  appears  a 
little  hard  upon  the  landlord.7  But  it  must  be  noticed, 
in  the  first  place,  that  there  is  no  protection  against 
arbitrary  eviction  ;  such  evictions  are  merely  made  more 
costly  for  the  landlord.  It  is  also  noticeable  that,  while 
more  or  less  establishing  two  out  of  the  three  F's,  this 
Act  omits  the  third  F,  viz.,  Fair  Rent,  inasmuch  as  it 
permits  the  landlord  to  raise  his  rents.  What  then  were 
its  results  ?  It  resulted  in  the  landlords  all  simultaneously 
raising  their  rents.  The  Bessborough  Commission 
of  1880  leaves  us  no  doubt  upon  that  point.8  Then 
they  evicted,  without  compensation,  those  of  their  tenants 
who  were  unable  to  pay  these  famine  rents.  During  the 
six  years  which  followed  the  passing  of  this  Act,  there 
were  14,080  evictions,  that  is  to  say,  about  double  the 
average  of  preceding  years.  Fixity  of  tenure  without 
fair  rent  is  an  absurdity,  as  we  shall  presently  read  in 
the  Report  of  the  Bessborough  Commission.  Feeling 
themselves  hit  in  their  privileges,  the  landlords  forthwith 
begin  to  show  themselves  less  scrupulous  than  ever  in 
the  use  they  make  of  their  remaining  rights.  In  short, 
the  tenants  did  not  gain  much  by  the  Act  of  1870,  and 
a  fresh  start  very  soon  became  necessary. 


V. — The  Legislation  of  1881. 

It  was  Mr.  Gladstone  himself  who  was  destined  to 
make  the  fresh  start.  The  circumstances  in  which  he 
began  his  work  are  well  known  :  the  agricultural  distress 
of  1879-80  ;  the  rising  en  masse  of  the  peasants  under 
the  banner  of  the  Land  League  ;  the  anarchic  agitation 
that  very  soon  left  the  Government  no  alternative  but 

7  The  obligation  to  repay  at  the  end  of  a  tenancy,  and  in  one  payment, 
the  value,  oiten  considerable,  of  these  improvements  made  by  the 
tenant  or  his  predecessors,  might,  of  course,  weigh  heavily  upon 
landlords  ;  besides  which  the  compensation  (for  disturbance)  due  to 
a  leaseholder  for  less  than  31  years,  at  the  end  of  his  term  iDevitably 
conflicted  to  some  extent  with  existing  legal  principles. 

8  Report  of  the  Bessborough  Commission,  pages  7,  8  and  10. 


THE   LAND    QUESTION  249 

that  of  passing  simultaneously  a  severe  Coercion  Act  and 
a  great  measure  of  agrarian  reform,  namely,  the  celebrated 
Land  Act  of  1881,  which  has  since  been  supplemented 
and  improved  by  the  later  Acts  of  1882,  1887,  1891,  and 
1896.1  It  was  an  immense  work  that  Mr.  Gladstone 
accomplished  on  this  occasion  ;  a  radical  and  gigantic 
reform.  Some  Parliaments  have  voted  more  revolutionary 
laws  ;  but  I  know  few  Acts  more  audacious  than  this, 
more  comprehensive  or  more  statesmanlike  ;  and  I  know 
none  the  passing  of  which  does  greater  honour  to  the 
eloquence  of  its  author  or  to  his  mastery  of  the  subject. 
Doubtless  there  were  in  the  Act  of  1881  many  reserva- 
tions and  exceptions,  and  some  points  were  forgotten 
either  intentionally  or  otherwise.2  The  Irish  amend- 
ments which  Gladstone  rejected  in  1881  had  to  be 
ultimately  adopted,  after  continually  renewed  agitation. 
But  while  we  must  take  account  of  the  opposition  of  the 
Irish,  and  the  hostility  of  the  House  of  Lords,  no  one 
can  deny  that  the  legislative  achievement,  of  the  "  Grand 
Old  Man  "  was,  nevertheless,  extraordinarily  effective  and 
far-reaching.  In  proof  of  this  fact  we  may  note  that 
after  having  attacked  his  plan  with  the  utmost  violence, 
the  English  Conservatives,  once  they  came  into  power, 
not  only  made  no  attempt  to  undo  what  he  had  done, 
but  actually  set  themselves  to  perfect  his  work  in  the 
same  spirit  and  according  to  the  same  principles  which 
he  had  laid  down.  This  was  what  the  late  Lord  Salisbury 
called  "  putting  a  little  good  sense  into  an  insensate  piece 
of  work."  Posterity,  however,  taking  a  somewhat 
different   view   from   that   of   Lord   Salisbury,    will   not 

1  44  and  45  Vic,  cap.  49  ;  45  and  46  Vic,  cap.  47  ;  50  and  51  Vic, 
cap.  33  ;    54  and  55  Vic,  cap.  4S  ;    59  and  60  Vic,  cap  47. 

2  In  the  first  place  while  establishing  the  new  regime  he  forgot  to 
clear  the  ground  by  settling  the  question  of  arrears,  which,  in  many 
cases,  amounted  to  considerable  sums.  These  points  had  to  be  taken 
in  hand  in  1882.  Similarly,  be  omitted  a  whole  class  of  tenants,  the 
leaseholders,  abGut  30,000  in  number  ;  in  1887  and  1896  it  was  found 
necessary  to  put  them  on  the  same  footing  as  the  others.  Finally,  he 
laid  down  no  data  for  the  valuation  of  fair  rents  any  more  than  for 
the  account  to  be  kept  with  each  tenant  as  to  his  improvements.  This 
omission  had  to  be  supplied  in  1896. 


250  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

deny  Mr.  Gladstone  the  honour  of  having  given  the 
Irish  peasant  his  Magna  Char  ta.  It  is  for  this,  at  all 
events,  that  the  Irish  are  profoundly  grateful  to  him. 

What  is  the  dominant  idea  in  the  agrarian  legislation 
of  Mr.  Gladstone  ?  It  is  found  that  the  regime  of  perfect 
freedom  in  agrarian  affairs  has  broken  down,  or  rather, 
that  between  landlord  and  tenant  no  real  freedom  of 
contract  is  possible.  It  is  necessary  therefore  to  replace 
the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire  by  that  of  Protection. 
Relations  between  landlord  and  tenant  must  be  regulated 
by  law,  seeing  that  competition  alone  is  not  sufficient  to 
regulate  them.  A  system  of  arbitration  must  be  forced 
upon  both  parties.  What  the  Act  of  1870  had  timidly 
attempted,  the  Act  of  188 1  effectively  achieved.  It 
established  the  regime  of  the  three  F's,  and  the  system 
of  dual  ownership,  that  is,  of  the  tenant's  co-ownership 
in  the  land  which  he  cultivates.  The  State  stood  forward 
as  arbitrator  between  the  landlords  and  their  tenants, 
and  undertook  the  regulation  of  their  connection.  We 
have  here  one  of  the  vastest  operations  of  State  Socialism 
that  has  been  attempted  in  modern  society  ;  and  it  is  in 
this  light  that  it  will,  we  believe,  be  most  interesting  to 
study  the  chief  traits  and  actual  results  of  the  Gladstonian 
legislation. 3 

The  Act  of  188 14  begins  by  recognising  the  principle  of 
free  sale,  or  the  right  to  sell  holdings.  Every  tenant 
can,  after  notifying  his  landlord,  sell  his  holding  to  a 

3  To  the  study  of  the  Act  of  1881  we  add  that  of  the  later  Acts 
passed  in  1882  and  1896  to  complete  the  original  Act  ;  but  we  omit 
for  the  present  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1881  concerning  land 
purchase. 

4  Like  the  Act  of  1870,  the  Act  of  188 1  only  applies  to  agricultural 
holdings.  It  does  not  apply  either  to  the  demesnes  or  to  the  home 
farms  of  the  landlords  ;  nor  to  town  parks.  It  does  not  affect  labourers' 
cottages,  or  land  let  in  conacre  (i.e.,  leased  for  one  single  harvest)  ; 
or  (as  amended  by  later  Acts)  grazing  lands  of  a  rateable  value  of 
more  than  /ioo  or  on  which  the  tenant  does  not  reside.  Finally,  the 
Act  of  1 88 1  had  excepted  from  its  privileges  the  leaseholder  ;  the  Act 
of  1887,  sections  1-3,  and  that  of  1896,  section  15,  declared  it  applicable 
to  leaseholds  which  were  in  existence  in  1881,  or,  in  certain  cases  were 
created  at  any  time  up  to  the  1st  January,  1883.  (Compare  the  Act 
of  188 1,  section  58  ;  the  Act  of  1887,  section  9  ;  the  Act  of  1896, 
section  5). 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  251 

new  tenant,  whom  the  landlord  can  only  reject  "  on 
reasonable  grounds."  In  case  of  dispute  the  matter  is 
to  be  referred  to  the  Land  Commission.  The  landlord, 
on  being  notified  of  the  sale,  has  a  right  of  pre-emption 
over  the  land  ;  the  price  of  the  pre-emption  in  case  of 
disagreement  is  to  be  fixed  by  the  Land  Commission. 5 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  sanction  of  the  first  of  the 
three  F's.  But  what  effect  was  given  to  the  other  two, 
viz.,  to  Fixity  of  Tenure  and  to  Fair  Rent  ?  Every 
tenant6  can  have  recourse  to  a  judicial  authority  which, 
on  his  demand,  will  fix  a  fair  rent  to  be  paid  by  him 
during  the  first  statutory  period  of  15  years  ;  at  the 
end  of  15  years,  on  a  fresh  demand  being  made,  there 
will  be  a  fresh  fixing  of  the  rent  for  a  new  quindecennial 
period  ;  and  so  on  for  the  future.  The  tenant  who  has 
thus  acquired  a  "judicial"  tenancy  can  no  longer  be 
expelled  from  it  except  for  non-payment  of  the  fair 
rent,  or  for  a  violation  of  the  statutory  conditions  of  his 
tenure.  He  is  forbidden  to  sub-let  or  sub-divide  the 
holding,  to  cause  dilapidation,  to  oppose  the  landlord  in 
the  exercise  of  his  rights,  such  as  shooting  and  fishing, 
mines,  minerals  and  the  like. 7  He  enjoys,  in  fact,  a 
perpetual  tenancy  with  revision  of  his  rent  by  the  Land 
Commission  Court  every  15  years.  Fair  Rent  and  Fixity 
of  Tenure  are  thus  bound  together,  and  mutually  assured 
by  each  other 

We  must  now  ask  what  is  the  judicial  authority  called 
in  to  act  as  arbitrator  between  the  landlords  and  the 
tenants.  The  Act  of  1881  provides  for  two.  One  is  the 
Civil  Bill  Court,  that  of  the  County  Court  Judge. 
Practically  speaking,  the  County  Courts  intervene  very 
little  in  the  application  of  this  Act  ;    in  fact,  it  has  even 

5  Act  of  1 88 1,  section  1. 

6  Except  those  who  have  lost  their  judicial  rights  (see  earlier). 
The  landlord  can  also  claim  to  have  a  fair  rent  fixed  if  the  tenant 
has  refused  the  increase  of  rent  demanded  of  him,  or  if,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  the  two  parties  cannot  agree.    Act  of  188 1,  section  8. 

7  Act  of  1 88 1,  setions  2  and  5. 

Act  of  1896  (section  7),  which  tempered  to  a  certain  extent  the 
prohibition  against  sub-letting  and  sub-dividing  holdings. 


252  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

been  proposed  to  deprive  them  of  this  special  jurisdiction.8 
The  second  and  principal  authority  is  the  special  tribunal 
created  by  the  Act,  viz.,  the  Land  Commission,  which 
includes  a  Judicial  Commissioner,  who  has  the  rank  of 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  was  assisted  originally 
by  two,  and  afterwards  by  four,  Commissioners. 9  This 
Land  Commission  sits  in  Dublin.  It  has  the  character- 
istics and  the  powers  of  a  Court  of  Justice  ;  it  is  a  person 
in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  and  can  possess  property  ;  its 
judgments  are  final  with  regard  to  points  of  fact,  but 
can  be  appealed  against  on  points  of  law  before  the  Court 
of  Appeal.  In  accordance  with  the  suggestion  of  the 
Act,  it  at  once  organised  throughout  the  country  various 
sub-commissions  composed  of  three  (or  nowadays  two) 
sub-commissioners.10  These  officials  decide,  in  the  first 
instance,  all  cases  relating  to  fair  rent,  except  re-hearings 
(that  is  to  say,  appeals)  before  the  Land  Commission. 
This  duty  of  hearing  appeals  in  the  provinces11  is 
delegated  by  the  Land  Commission  to  a  certain  number 
of  its  members  in  turn. 

We  may  complete  our  review  by  pointing  out  a  few  of 
the  other  accessory  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1881  or  of 
the  later  Acts.     In  the  first  place,  instead  of  going  before 

8  Every  Judgment  given  in  the  Civil  Bill  Court  can  be  appealed 
against  before  the  Land  Commission  (Act  of  1881,  section  47;  and 
Act  of  1903,  section  88). 

9  The  number  of  Commissioners  was  changed  from  2  to  4  by  the 
Act  of  1885.  The  Act  of  1891  gave  them  the  status  of  County  Court 
Judges  ;  moreover,  the  Land  Act  of  1903  appointed  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners second  Judicial  Commissioner,  and  authorised  the  Lord 
Chancellor  to  select  any  Judge  of  the  High  Court  to  act,  if  necessary, 
as  Supplementary  Judicial  Commissioner  (Section  86). 

10  Before  1903  every  Sub-Commission  was  composed  of  a  legal 
Assistant  Commissioner  and  two  lay  Assistant  Commissioners.  Since 
the  Act  of  1903  (Section  87)  every  Sub-Commission  must  consist  of  a 
lay  and  a  legal  Assistant  Commissioner.  By  Section  44  of  the  Act  of 
1 88 1  every  case  may  also  be  heard  in  the  first  instance  by  a  single 

•member  of  the  Land  Commission  sitting  alone.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
cases  are  always  heard  in  the  first  instance  by  the  Sub-Commission. 

11  According  to  the  Act  of  1881  (section  44)  the  appeal  was  to  be 
heard  by  three  Commissioners,  or  at  least  two,  in  case  of  the  third 
being  unable  to  attend.  According  to  the  Act  of  1903  (section  88)  a 
judicial  commissioner  may  decide  these  appeals  with  the  assistance  of 
a  lay  assessor. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  253 

the  judicial  authority,  the  landlord  and  the  tenant  can 
come  to  a  friendly  agreement  in  order  to  fix  the  fair 
rent  of  a  piece  of  land  for  15  years  ;  but  once  the  agree- 
ment has  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  judicial 
authority,  the  holding  becomes  "judicial/'  just  as  if  the 
case  had  been  decided  by  the  Land  Commission.12  On 
the  other  hand,  in  order  to  avoid  coming  under  the  Act, 
the  parties  may,  with  the  approval  of  the  court,  agree 
upon  a  lease  for  31  years  or  more,  or  on  a  perpetual 
lease  (which  is  very  seldom  put  into  practice).^  With 
this  exception,  any  contracting  out  of  the  benefits  of  the 
Act,  if  it  proceeds  from  a  tenant  of  less  than  £150 
valuation,  is  held  to  be  null  and  void.^  A  tenant  who 
does  not  pay  his  rent  is  liable  to  have  his  goods  seized, 
or  to  be  evicted,  after  judgment  has  been  given  against 
him1  S  ;  but  for  six  months  he  will  retain  the  right  to  buy 
back  his  holding,16  Eviction  itself  has  been  replaced,  in 
the  case  of  all  holdings  of  less  than  £100  sterling,  by  the 
serving  of  a  notice  to  quit,  which  notice  is  served  not  less 
than  six  weeks  after  the  decree  of  ejectment  ;  after 
which  the  tenant,  though  he  still  reserves,  during  the 
regulation  six  months,  his  right  of  sale  or  of  redemption, 
is  merely  considered  as  a  caretaker  or  a  guardian  until 
after  six  months  he  is  actually  ejected  :  this  is  the 
celebrated  "Eviction  made  Easy  clause/'1?  Finally  we 
may  ask  :  What  becomes  of  the  tenant  who  has  lost  his 
judicial  rights  ?    Like  the  man  whose  tenancy  was  created 

12  Act  of   1 88 1,  section  8  (6).     The  parties  may  also  submit  their 
case  to  an  arbitrator  (Act  of  1881,  section  40)  ;  but  this  is  never  done, 
!3  Act  of  188 1,  sections  ïo  and  12. 
J4  lb.,  section  22. 

i5  According  to  the  Act  of  1887  (section  30)  the  Land  Commission 
has  power  to  suspend  eviction  during  three  months  in  the  case  of  a 
holding  of  less  than  £50  rateable  value  by  ordering  the  arrears  to  be 
paid  by  instalments..  Moreover,  according  to  the  Act  of  1896  (section 
16),  when  the  tenant  is  more  than  two  years  in  arrears  with  bis  rent, 
he  cannot,  if  he  pays  or  offers  two  years  arrears,  be  evicted  for  non- 
payment of  the  surplus» 

ï6  Act  of  1881,  section  13. 

17  Act  of  1887,  section  7. 


254  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

after  January  ist,  1883,18  he  is  deprived  of  the  privileges 
of  the  Act  of  1881  ;  he  finds  himself  wholly  under  the 
regime  of  Free  Contract,  except  for  the  provisions  of  the 
Act  of  1870. 1 9  The  legislator  here  shows  his  desire  to 
reach,  at  some  more  or  less  future  date,  a  time  when  he 
will  be  able  to  dispense  with  the  system  of  agrarian 
protection  established  by  the  Act  of  188 1,  and  to  return 
to  a  normal  state  of  things  by  assimilating  the  Irish 
tenant  to  the  English  tenant.20 

Let  us  examine  now  the  statistics  and  the  facts  of 
this  legislation.  Mr.  Gladstone  had  hoped  that  the 
judicial  authorities  would  not  have  to  make  great 
reductions  in  the  rents.  His  expectations  on  this  point 
were  singularly  mistaken.  On  the  31st  March,  1906, 
360,135  tenants  had  obtained  the  fixing  of  a  judicial 
fair  rent  for  a  first  quindecennial  period  ;  this  fair  rent 
gave  an  average  reduction  of  20.7  per  cent,  on  the 
amount  of  the  former  rents  (the  net  total  of  the  reduced 
rents  amounting  to  £5,715,158).  At  the  same  date, 
120,515  tenants  had  had  their  fair  rent  fixed  for  the 
second  quindecennial  period  with  a  further  reduction 
averaging  19.7  per  cent,  on  the  rents  of  the  first  period 
(the  net  total  of  the  reduced  rents  being  £1,728,600).  The 
average  rent  fixed  by  the  Land  Commission  for  the  first 
statutory  period  works  out  at  about  12  shillings  an  acre  ; 
the  average  figure  for  the  second  statutory  period  at 
about  10  shillings  an  acre.21 

18  Act  of  188 1,  section  57.  These  new  tenancies  may  come  into 
being  either  through  the  letting  of  lands  formerly  directly  cultivated 
by  the  landlord,  or  else  by  the  re-letting  of  tenancies  which  were 
formerly  judicial  but  whose  possessors  have  forfeited  their  rights.  No 
new  tenancy  is  created  when  the  tenant  sells  his  holding  in  the  ordinary 
way  to  a  new  occupier  as  his  direct  successor. 

19  Hë  is  a  future  tenant  as  opposed  to  the  present  tenants  who  are 
'judicial  tenants  (Act  of  1881,  sections  4  and  57). 

20  We  must  also  note  another  provision  of  the  Act  of  1881,  which 
regulates  the  succession  to  judicial  holdings  (section  3).  If  the  tenant 
leaves  his  holding  to  more  than  one  person,  or  dies  intestate  leaving 
several  next-of-kin,  these  next-of-kin  must  agree  to  name  one  of  their 
number  to  succeed  to  the  tenancy  ;  otherwise  the  tenancy  will  be  sold. 
Finally,  if  a  tenant  dies  intestate  without  next-of-kin  the  tenancy 
returns  to  the  landlord.  The  object  of  the  Act  1  hroaghout  is  to  prevent 
sub-division. 

21  Report  of  the  Irish  Land  Commissioners  for  1905- 1906,  page  3 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  255 


VI. — The  Complaints  of  the  Landlords. 

Everyone,  I  suppose,  will  realise  how  Mr.  Gladstone's 
legislative  operation  was  regarded  by  the  patients  upon 
whom  he  operated,  that  is  to  say,  the  landlords  and  their 
allies  the  Conservatives.  To  them  it  seemed  not  merely 
"  dishonest  "  in  the  highest  degree,  to  quote  Mr.  Lecky 
the  historian,1  but  even  Jacobin  and  revolutionary  ;  in 
fact  the  work  of  a  man  who  meant,  according  to  a  now 
famous  saying,  "  to  relegate  to  Saturn  all  the  laws  of 
Political  Economy."  The  Bill  of  1881  had  hardly  been 
introduced  at  Westminster  before  the  whole  of  the  Press 
was  filled  with  protests.  Within  twenty-four  hours  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  had  retired  from  the  Gladstone  Cabinet. 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill  denounced  the  three  F's.  as  "  an 
impossibility  and  an  immorality."  "  They  stand  for 
Force,  Fraud,  and  Folly,"  said  Sir  Stafford  Northcote. 
From  that  day  to  this,  an  uninterrupted  concert  of  claims 
and  complaints  has  continued  on  the  part  of  the  Irish 
landlords  and  their  English  supporters.  The  whole  world, 
they  tell  us,  has  been  turned  upside  down!  It  means 
chaos  and  anarchy.  The  State,  which  in  the  old  days 
"  planted  "  us  down  in  Ireland,  is  now  supplanting  us  in 
our  rights,  shutting  off  our  properties  from  the  free  play 
of  commerce  and  from  the  advantages  of  credit,  turning 
them  into  one  vast  mortmain  from  which  we  are  merely 
to  receive  an  allowance.  Giving  the  tenants  real  right 
in  the  land — what  is  this  but  a  legalised  filching  from  the 
owner,  of  a  portion  of  his  property  ?  What  else  can  one 
call  it  but  legal  confiscation,  first,  to  cut  down  a  man's 
rents  by  means  of  an  untrustworthy  tribunal,  and  then  to 
reduce  his  position  from  that  of  full  ownership  to  that  of 
a  mere  annuitant  or  creditor  of  his  own  property  ? 
It  is  simply  and  solely  because  you  are  intimidated 
by  the    threats    of    the    agitators,    that    you    are    now 

1  Democracy  and  Liberty.       London.    1S96,   p.    182.      A  book  to  be 
consulted  for  criticisms  of  the  Gladstonian  legislation. 


256  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

organising  official  pillage,  and  throwing  the  graziers  to 
the  Nationalist  wolves.  You  are  establishing  social 
demoralisation,  setting  a  premium  on  idleness  and 
anarchy,  and  destroying  all  ideas  of  honesty  or  respect 
for  contracts  ! 

There  is  some  truth  in  these  criticisms,  in  spite  of  their 
evident  exaggeration.  But  how  can  one  overlook  the 
state  of  things  which  necessitated  and  therefore  justified 
the  great  Gladstonian  reforms  ?  A  past  filled  with 
exactions  and  oppression  of  which  the  living  generation 
of  landlords  was  reaping  the  benefit,  even  though  it 
might  not  be  responsible  for  them  !  The  actual  misery 
of  those  peasants  whose  case  cried  for  help,  at  any  cost, 
in  order  to  enable  them  to  live  ;  and  finally  those  terrible 
years  of  1880  and  i88i,when  famine  appeared  almost  as 
imminent  as  in  1847,  and  when  landlords  were  evicting 
their  tenants  by  the  hundred,  although  each  eviction,  in 
Mr.  Gladstone's  words,  amounted  to  a  sentence  of  death  ! 
In  no  state  of  society  can  it  be  allowed  that  landed  property 
should  have  an  absolute  right  to  enjoy  with  impunity 
the  jus  abutendi,  seeing  that  of  all  forms  of  property,  it  is 
that  which  in  one  sense  owes  most  to  society.  It  is  a 
melancholy  fact,  but  it  is  true,  that  when  the  laws  have 
sanctioned  abuses  until  those  abuses  have  accumulated 
to  the  point  of  identifying  supreme  legality  with  supreme 
injustice — summum  jus  summa  injuria — then,  any  kind 
of  reform  will  inevitably  work  some  wrong  against 
established  rights  ;  that  is  to  say,  against  rights  which, 
though  they  may  have  remained  legal,  have  ceased  to  be 
legitimate 

Admitted  !  you  will  reply.  But  it  is  none  the  less  true 
that  Mr.  Gladstone  had  promised  to  compensate  the 
injured  landlords,  and  that  he  never  did  so.  England 
had  not  the  courage  and  generosity  to  make  a  sacrifice 
for  the  peace  of  Ireland  similar  to  that  made  by  France 
at  the  Restoration,  and  known  as  the  "  Milliard  des 
Émigrés."  Were  the  Irish  landlords  entitled  to  compensa- 
tion ?     It  is  a  delicate  question,    Gladstone,  as  has  been 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  257 

said,2  no  more  created  the  duality  of  ownership  than  he 
created  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  Ireland  ;  he  merely 
legalised  a  custom  the  guiding  principle  of  which  had 
been  for  centuries  more  or  less  accepted  in  that  country. 
What  is  it  that  the  landlords  have  been  actually  despoiled 
of  ?  Simply  the  right  of  taking  full  advantage  of  the 
competition  for  the  land  ;  of  exploiting  the  abnormal  and 
unnatural  situation  which  gave  them  a  land  monopoly  as 
opposed  to  the  Irish  people.  It  must  also  be  remembered, 
that  but  for  the  intervention  of  the  State,  Ireland  was 
advancing  towards  a  revolution,  and  that  in  the  words 
of  Lord  Derby,  "  Men  whom  a  lifeboat  has  dragged  out 
from  a  vessel  going  to  pieces  on  the  rocks  must  not 
complain  too  loudly  if  they  lose  some  of  their  property 
in  the  process."  3 

The  great  mistake  of  the  reformers  of  188 1  is  clearly 
revealed  by  an  examination  of  the  facts.  In  the  first 
place,  they  suggested  no  remedy  for  the  two  constitutional 
evils  of  Irish  land,  namely,  the  excessive  sub-division  of 
holdings  and  the  excessive  extent  of  the  grazing  tracts  ; 
or,  to  put  it  otherwise,  they  only  considered  the  questions 
of  "  rent  "  and  of  "  fixity  of  tenure,"  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  other  data  of  the  problem.  Secondly,  they  were 
mistaken  in  regarding  the  new  regime  as  one  that  could 
be  normal  and  permanent.  Mr.  Gladstone's  reforms  did 
not  provide  a  final  solution  of  the  agrarian  question  in 
Ireland.  They  merely  offered  a  provisional  compromise, 
an  agreement  that  was  hastily  forced  upon  the  two  parties 
in  the  suit  and  was  only  a  half-way  house  towards  the 
solution. 

The  Act  of  188 1  was  necessary  ;  it  brought  and  continues 
to  bring  immense  good  to  the  country.     Nevertheless  the 

2  O'Connor-Morris,  Present  Irish  Questions,  London  and  New  York, 
1901,  p.  183. 

3  Speech  of  January  4th,  1882  (Annual  Register,  1882,  p.  4).  We 
must  remember  also  that  the  landlords  were  freed  from  all  local  taxation 
in  their  rented  lands  (Local  Government  Act  of  1898)  and  that  they 
received  from  the  State  in  1900  some  important  advantages  with 
regard  to  the  redemption  of  tithe-rent-charges. 

S 


258  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

system  established  by  it  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no  longer 
bearable  for  anyone.  Why  should  this  be  the  case  ? 
That  is  the  question  which  now  remains  for  us  to  consider. 


VII. — The  Practical  Results  of  the  Gladstonian 
Legislation. 

The  first  great  characteristic  of  the  Gladstonian  legisla- 
tion is  duality  of  ownership,  an  arrangement  as  to  whose 
value  opinion  is  practically  unanimous  in  Ireland.  It  is 
an  unhealthy  system,  unsound  both  economically  and 
socially,  this  dual  ownership,  which  turns  the  landlord 
and  tenant  into  co-proprietors  of  the  soil.1  It  paralyses 
agriculture  by  preventing  the  investment  of  capital  on 
either  side,  and  by  destroying  all  interest  of  either  landlord 
or  tenant  in  the  good  farming  of  the  land.  The  landlord 
feels  himself  no  longer  called  upon  to  do  anything  for  his 
property,  and  has  no  care  left  but  that  of  collecting  his 
rents.  The  tenant,  on  the  other  hand,  refrains  from 
making  any  improvement  or  advances  that  might  cause 
his  rent  to  be  raised  at  the  next  quindecennial  revision  ; 
the  land  is  thus  starved  both  of  labour  and  of  capital. 
We  may  add,  also,  that  the  new  regime  gives  rise  to  an 
infinity  of  ruinous  law-suits  between  the  co-owners. 
Ireland,  according  to  a  common  saying,  lives  "  under  a 
regime  of  law-suits  lasting  fifteen  years,  and  renewable 
for  ever."  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  there  has  been 
only  one  class  of  men  whose  affairs  have  prospered, 
namely,  the  solicitors.  Their  number  has  increased  by 
30  per  cent.     One  may  call  Ireland  a  lawyer's  paradise  ! 

It  might,  perhaps,  be  expected  that  joint-ownership,  in 

1  Nevertheless  duality  of  ownership  has  still  a  few  defenders  in 
Ireland,  and  among  English  Liberals.  Cf.  Shaw  Lefevre,  Agrarian 
Tenures,  London,  1893,  p.  148.  Moreover  this  regime  is  not  so 
exceptional  as  one  might  suppose.  One  finds  a  historical  precedent; 
for  it  in  the  Roman  emphyteusis,  and  more  or  less  close  analogies  in 
the  systems  of  metayage  and  emphyteusis  which  exist  in  several 
European  countries. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  259 

spite  of  its  drawbacks,  would,  at  all  events,  have  proved 
successful  in  allaying  the  ill  results  of  free  competition 
for  the  land.  Unfortunately  this  is  not  so.  Competition 
no  longer  affects  the  farms  the  rents  of  which  are  judicially 
fixed,  but  it  makes  itself  felt  with  regard  to  the  tenant- 
right  (the  tenant's  right  of  occupation),  which  has  become 
more  than  ever  a  marketable  commodity,  to  be  bought 
or  sold,  and  which  has  continued  to  rise  in  price  according 
as  the  rents  have  fallen.  When  a  peasant  takes  a  farm, 
he  is  obliged  to  pay  his  predecessor,  as  the  price  of  his 
tenant  right,  a  sum  of  money,  often  considerable,  and 
sometimes  amounting  to  ten  or  twenty  times  the  rent  of 
the  land,2  and  this  merely  to  enjoy  the  right  of  paying 
an  equally  heavy  rent  to  the  landlord  !  The  tenant  who 
was  in  possession  in  188 1  is  the  only  man  who  has  been 
able  to  enjoy  gratuitously  the  advantages  of  the  Act  of 
188 1.  If  the  Gladstonian  legislation  had  contented  itself 
with  establishing  fixity  of  tenure  and  fair  rent,  it  would 
have  left  a  work  endowed  with  stability  ;  but  by  legalising 
the  third  F.,  Free  Sale,  it  gave  free  play  to  the  struggle 
for  land.  A  fresh  proof  that  if  you  close  the  door  on 
competition,  competition  will  fly  in  by  the  window  ! 

One  last  word  as  to  dual  ownership.  When  two  parties 
have  been  at  war  for  centuries  about  a  scrap  of  land,  a 
treaty  which  brings  them  joint  dominion  over  that  plot 
will  never  bring  them  peace.  In  this  instance  the  agrarian 
treaty  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Gladstone  has  had  the  result  of 
creating  a  wider  gulf  than  ever  between  landlord  and 
tenant.  It  has  organised  a  latent  but  continuous  state 
of  war  on  the  Irish  land.  Gladstone,  in  Lord  Dufferin's 
phrase,  had  forced  landlord  and  tenant  into  the  same 
bed,  and  one  of  them  would  necessarily  end  by  kicking 
out  the  other. 

Let  us  pass  on  to  the  second  great  characteristic  of  the 

2  Cases  have  been  known  where  it  amounted  to  40  or  50  times  the 
figure  of  the  rent  (Report  of  Fry  Commission,  Appendix,  p.  106  and 
the  following).  The  tenant  right  represents  not  only  the  right  of 
occupation,  but  the  value  of  the  buildings  the  improvements  or  outlay 
on  the  soil,  the  sowing,  etc. 


26o  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

scheme  ;  the  general  and  compulsory  fixing  of  rents  by  a 
judicial  authority.  What  have  been  the  practical  results 
of  that  gigantic  experiment  in  State  Socialism  ?  3  We 
may  say  at  once  that  they  have  satisfied  no  one.  Nobody 
has  confidence  in  the  land  court  (the  Land  Commission). 
Moreover  it  is  an  obvious  and  absolute  impossibility  for  a 
commission  of  six  or  seven  members,  even  though  it  were 
helped  by  a  hundred  sub-commissioners  (sub-confiscators, 
as  the  landlords  call  them),  to  fix  a  fair  rent  in  half  a 
million  individual  cases,  all  different  and  all  more  or  less 
complex.  So  loud  were  the  recriminations  from  all 
parties  that  in  1897  the  Conservative  Government 
appointed  a  Commission  of  Enquiry,  presided  over  by 
Sir  E.  Fry,  to  make  a  practical  study  of  the  working  of 
the  system.4  Let  us,  in  turn,  make  a  study  of  the  results 
of  their  enquiry. 

The  first  point  that  strikes  one  is  that,  between  members 
of  the  Land  Commission,  there  are  sharp  divergencies 
and  a  constant  conflict  of  opinion  ;  "  they  differ  among 
themselves  as  to  the  principles  and  methods  "5  which  should 
form  a  basis  of  their  work.  They  have  laid  down  no 
general  rule  for  the  determination  of  "  fair  rent  ;  "  the 
sub-commissioners  whose  duty  it  is  to  decide  in  the  first 
instance,  have  found  themselves  left  to  their  individual 
judgment  ;  among  them  there  is  "  neither  a  common 
understanding  of  the  law,  or  anything  approaching  to 
uniformity  in  practice."  When,  by  chance,  their 
decisions  agree,  in  spite  of  the  differences  in  their  basis 
of  calculation,  "  such  agreement  is,  if  possible,  more 
strange  than  their  differences."     They  get  through  their 

3  The  Land  Commission  costs  the  budget  ^140,000  a  year.  The 
very  smallest  action  costs  the  tenant,  under  various  headings,  a  sum 
about  equal  to  the  first  annual  reduction  which  he  receives. 

4  V.  Report  and  the  volumes  of  Evidence  of  the  Commissioners 
of  Inquiry  into  the  procedure  and  practice  and  methods  of  valuation 
followed  by  the  Land  Commission,  etc.  (Dublin,  1898).  The  majority 
of  this  Commission  was  entirely  favourable  to  the  landlord  party. 
Four  years  earlier  the  workings  of  the  agrarian  legislation  had  already 
been  made  a  subject  of  official  enquiry  by  a  Parliamentary  Commission 
called  the  Morley  Committee. 

5  Report,  p.  16. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  261 

work  in  a  wholesale  manner  or  by  rule  of  thumb  :  some 
of  them  have  been  seen  to  decide  fifty  cases  in  an  afternoon 
and  begin  work  again  next  morning.6 

The  result  is  an  enormous  number  of  rehearings  before 
the  Land  Commission,  that  is  to  say,  appeals  against  the 
decisions  of  the  sub-commissioners.  There  were  90,632 
of  them,  within  25  years,  and  at  the  present  moment  it  is 
reckoned  that  half  the  decisions  as  to  rents  within  the 
second  statutory  period  give  rise  to  an  appeal,  although 
the  expenses  of  an  appeal  are  very  high  (£10,  on  an 
average)  and  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  results  obtained.7 
The  Land  Commission  is  blocked  up  by  them,  and  though 
it  decides  its  cases  "  with  a  rapidity  and  with  a  silence 
as  to  the  grounds  of  the  decisions  which  create  dissatisfac- 
tion in  the  minds  of  the  litigants  whose  property  is  at 
stake,"  it  had  13,808  appeals  in  arrear  on  March  31st, 
1904,  and  9,043  on  March  31st,  1906.8 

Everyone   is    in    agreement    as    regards    these   general 
criticisms.     The  disagreement  begins  when  one  starts  to 

8  lb.,  p.  13. — Cf.  Morley  Committee's  Report. — The  sub-commissioners 
are  chosen  from  among  barristers  or  solicitors  with  at  least  six  years 
practice,  or  among  persons  with  a  special  competence  in  the  valuation 
of  land.  As  a  matter  of  fact  many  of  them  are  ill  prepared  for  their 
duties  ;  often  they  have  another  profession  as  well.  (Report,  pp.  12, 
14,  26).  Their  examination  of  the  land  is  usually  very  superficial  ; 
nevertheless  they  undertake  to  value  the  rent  acre  by  acre,  or  to  give 
a  separate  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  land  from  that  of  the  buildings, 
all  of  which  things  are  declared  by  English  experts  to  be  impossible. 
Cf.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Local  Taxation  [Ireland),  London, 
1900,  vol.  V.,  pp.  10,  194.  Cf.  the  articles  of  the  Rev.  T.  A.  Finlay, 
S.J.,  in  the  New  Ireland  Review  on  the  Art  of  Rent  Fixing  (July,  1901, 
p.  239,  etc.,  September,  etc.)  To  despise  red  tape  is  a  good  thing  ; 
but  it  is  pushed  almost  too  far  when  a  man  gives  judgment  "  by  post 
card,"  especially  when  he  afterwards  delays  sending  the  official  schedule 
until  after  the  time  for  appealing  has  expired.  (Report  of  the  Fry 
Commission,  p.   15). 

7  Report  of  the  Land  Commission  for  1905-1906,  p.  3.  Hansard, 
March  25th,  1902.  Report  of  the  Morley  Committee.  The  latter  report 
shows  that  in  1894  the  net  result  of  the  appeals  had  resolved  itself 
into  an  insignificant  rise  of  0.02  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  the  rent 
(say  ^2,383)  ;  the  corresponding  costs  amounted  to  ^250,000.  There 
is  a  desire  to  abolish  the  right  of  appeal  in  small  cases  (for  instance 
in  all  cases  of  a  rent  below  ^30,  as  in  the  Scotch  Crofter's  Act). 

3  Reports  of  the  Land  Commission  for  1903-1904  and  1905-1906.  Fry 
Commission  Report,  p.  15.  The  appeals  are  decided  "  deuced  badly." 
It  is  a  "  judicial  farce,"  said  a  member  of  the  Land  Commission  (cf. 
O'Connor  Morris,  Present  Irish  Questions,  p.  -17). 


262  MATERIAL    DECADENCE. 

criticise  the  reduction  of  rents  effected  by  the  Land 
Commission. 

The  landlords,  for  their  part,  have  from  the  very  first 
protested  with  the  utmost  energy  against  the  reductions 
of  rents  which  deprived  them,  in  the  first  instance,  of  20.7 
per  cent.,  and  then,  in  the  second  instance,  of  19.7  per 
cent,  of  their  income  from  land.  They  have  asserted 
that  these  reductions  are  out  of  all  proportion  to  the 
fall  in  the  value  of  land-produce,  an  assertion  which  is, 
at  all  events,  debateable.  They  have  based  their 
arguments  on  the  fact  that  while  their  rents  were  being 
reduced  by  two-fifths,  the  price  of  the  tenant-right 
continued  to  rise  higher  and  higher.  Now  for  this  there 
is  an  explanation.  Surely  the  value  of  tenant-right 
represents  something  entirely  different  (buildings,improve- 
ments,  investments  in  the  land  of  all  sorts)  from  the 
value  of  the  bare  soil  let  by  the  landlord  to  the  tenant. 
But  as  a  final  resort  they  obtained  an  examination  of 
their  grievances  by  an  official  commission  of  enquiry,  the 
Fry  Commission,  which,  although  it  justified  their 
complaints  on  certain  points  of  detail,  9  was  unable  to 
admit  their  accuracy  as  regards  the  essential  point, 
namely,  the  reduction  of  rents.  "  We  thus  feel  ourselves 
unable  to  conclude  that  the  machinery  of  the  land 
statutes,"  says  the  Report,10  "has  been  uniformly  worked 
with  injustice  to  the  landlords." 

In  view  of  the  general  discontent  among  the  landlords 
one  would  suppose  that  the  tenants  at  all  events  ought 
to  be  satisfied.  Unfortunately  it  is  not  so.  They  are 
quite  as  far  from  being  contented  as  the  landlords.  They 
consider  the  reductions  insufficient  : IX  they  say  that  they 

9  It  declared  in  the  first  place  that  the  sub-commissions  sometimes 
took  account  as  regards  the  tenants,  of  a  sort  of  occupation  interest 
not  provided  for  by  the  law  ;  secondly,  that  they  sometimes  showed 
excessive  indulgence  for  tenants  who,  for  their  own  purposes,  allowed 
the  land  to  deteriorate.      (Report,  p.  21  and  26). 

10  lb.,  p.  26. 

11  They  complain  that,  in  case  of  a  tenant  wishing  to  sell  his  tenant 
right  and  of  the  landlord  exercising  his  right  of  preemption,  the  Land 
Commission  fixes  the  price  of  preemption  far  too  low  ;  in  fact  far  below 
what  the  tenant  would  get  in  the  open  market;  thereby,  they  say, 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  263 

axe  unjustly  treated  ;  they  accuse  the  Land  Commission 
of  being  biassed  in  favour  of  the  landlords.  And  a  close 
examination  proves  that  their  complaints  are  not  always 
unfounded,  even  though,  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  not 
always  justifiable. 

They  assert  that  the  average  reduction  under  the  Land 
Commission  is  insufficient,  first  in  view  of  the  average 
fall  in  the  price  of  land  produce  during  the  last  25  years, 
and  secondly  as  compared  with  the  average  reduction  in 
English  rents  during  the  same  period.  Statistics  in  hand, 
they  undertake  to  prove  that  the  burden  oi  loss  due  to 
the  cheapening  of  agricultural  produce  has  been  unjustly 
divided  between  the  interested  parties  by  the  Land 
Commission  :  that  the  tenants  bear  two-thirds  and  the 
landlords  only  one-third.  As  regards  the  comparison  with 
England  one  reads  in  an  official  report  that  agricultural 
rents  in  England,  where  the  tenant  generally  makes  no 
improvements,  and  possesses  no  legal  property  in  the 
holding,  have  undergone  much  heavier  reductions  within 
the  same  period,  by  voluntary  action  of  the  landlords."  I2 
One  hesitates  to  base  any  opinion  on  the  value  of 
these  assertions,  when  one  considers  the  extreme  delicacy 
of  all  such  comparisons  ;  and  still  more  when  one 
remembers  the  great  number  and  diversity  of  the  elements 
that  must  enter  into  any  estimate  concerning  that 
primordial  element,  the  selling  price  of  agricultural 
produce  :  for  instance  the  cost  of  labour,  the  cost  ol 
feeding  stuffs  and  of  machinery,  the  expenses  of  transit, 
the  cost  of  living  in  country  districts,  and  so  on. 

destroying  Free  Sale.  In  principle  the  criticism  seems  to  be  ill-founded. 
The  whole  aim  of  the  Acts  of  1881  was  to  suppress  free  competition 
for  land.  The  Land  Commission  therefore  fixes  the  price  of  preemption 
at  a  lower  rate  than  that  under  free  competition,  just  as  it  fixes  the 
"  fair  rents  "  at  a  lower  rate  than  those  obtainable  under  free 
competition. 

12  Report  of  the  Morley  Committee,  p.  VI.  (Sec.  Fair  Rent).  Cf.  Fry 
Commission  Report,  p.  25  :  la  England  many  farms  can  no  longer  find 
a  tenant  ;  in  many  places  all  rent  is  a  thing  of  the  past  and  the  land 
is  going  to  waste.  Cf.  the  interesting  enquiry  of  Mr.  Rider  Haggard, 
Rural  England  (London,  1902)  :  the  average  fall  in  English  rents  since 
1870  amounts  to  as  much  as  50  per  cent. 


264  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

What  one  may  boldly  assert  is,  that  as  a  matter  oi 
fact  there  are  to-day  large  numbers  of  tenants  who  pay 
excessive  and  unjust  rents.  For  this  there  are  two 
assignable  reasons. 

The  first  is  that  out  of  over  half  a  million  agricultural 
tenants,  there  are,  as  we  have  stated,  only  360,135 — say 
less  than  two-thirds — who,  by  March  31st,  1906,  had  had 
their  rents  fixed  for  the  first  term  of  fifteen  years  ;  and 
that  out  of  those  360,135  tenants  there  were,  at  the  same 
date,  only  120,515  who  had  had  their  rents  fixed  for  the 
second  term,  about  half  of  which  has  already  elapsed. 
This  means  that  a  large  number  of  tenants  find  themselves 
excluded  from  having  recourse  to  the  Land  Commission  ; 
debarred  from  it  either  in  law  because  they  have  lost 
their  judicial  rights,  or  else  in  fact,  for  one  of  many 
reasons  ;  either  because  they  consider  the  expense  and 
delay  prohibitive,  or  else  because  their  landlord  deters 
them  from  it  by  threats  of  a  lawsuit  or  by  other  means, 
or,  finally  and  more  usually,  because  they  are  dragging 
in  their  train  a  list  of  unpaid  arrears.^ 

There  is  a  second  reason  why  the  tenants  are  often 
compelled  to  pay  excessive  rents.  It  is  that  the  Land 
Commission,  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  law,  finds  ways 
of  taxing  the  tenant's  improvements  and  the  investments 
which  he  has  made  in  the  land  apart  from  his  norma] 
expenses  of  cultivation.  It  sometimes  even  includes  the 
indirect  products  of  his  industry.  It  has  always  done 
this  ;  at  one  time  indeed  it  did  so  on  a  far  larger  scale. 
Let  us  consider  how  it  has  been  able  to  deceive  the 
intentions  of  the  legislator. 

The  Act  of  1881  contained  no  definition  of  "  fair  rent  ;  " 

J3  The  landlord  would  evict  them  on  account  of  their  arrears  if  they 
summoned  him  before  the  Land  Commission.  We  may  add  that  some 
tenants  abstain  from  going  before  the  Land  Commission  because  the 
landlord  has  voluntarily  allowed  them  equivalent  reductions.  Others, 
more  numerous,  were  excluded  from  all  recourse  to  the  Land  Commission 
as  being  cultivators  of  demesne  lands,  of  cattle  breeding  farms  with 
a  rental  of  ovei  ^100,  of  home  farms  or  town  parks(Act  of  i88i,Sect.  58). 
The  number  of  tenants  who  have  lost  their  judicial  rights  is  estimated 
at  50,000. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  265 

this  was  one  of  its  serious  omissions.  It  merely  provided 
that  "  a  fair  rent  "  was  to  be  fixed,  "  having  regard  to 
the  interests  of  the  landlord  and  tenant  respectively,  and 
considering  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  holding,  and 
district." 

It  added  that  "  no  rent  shall  be  allowed  or  made 
payable  in  any  proceedings  under  this  Act  in  respect  ol 
improvements  made  by  the  tenant  or  his  predecessors  in 
title,  and  for  which,  in  the  opinion  of  the  court,  the 
tenant  or  his  predecessor  in  title  shall  not  have  been 
paid  or  otherwise  compensated  by  the  landlord  or  his 
predecessors  in  title."  J4  Now,  the  Act  had  not  been  in 
force  for  six  months  before  these  provisions  were  reduced 
to  a  dead  letter  by  the  Dublin  Court  of  Appeal.  In 
Adams  v.  Dunseath  (February,  1882),  it  decided  first  that 
they  only  applied  to  improvements  provided  for  in  the 
Act  of  1870,  to  the  exclusion  of  a  great  number  of 
improvements  that  are  excluded  by  that  Act  ;  and 
secondly,  that  under  the  provisions  of  the  same  Act  of 
1870  the  fact  that  a  tenant  had,  for  a  longer  or  shorter 
period  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  his  improvements,  might  be 
taken  into  consideration  by  the  judge  as  being  an 
equivalent  for  compensation,  and  as  serving  to  limit  the 
reductions  in  rent  which  would  have  been  allowed  for 
these  improvements.^  This  two-fold  decision  was  not 
merely  of  doubtful  equity,  but  was  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  formally  expressed  intentions  of  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  Commons  in  1881  had  rejected  by  large 
majorities  two  amendments  that  would  have  established 

H  Section  8,  Sub-sees.  1  and  9.  The  second  of  these  provisions  was  added 
to  the  Act  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Healy  (it  was  called  the  Healy  Clause). 
The  importance  of  these  improvements  and  outlay  on  the  land  is 
obvious. 

I5  It  is,  in  short,  the  assimilation  of  two  entirely  different  rights  : 
the  right  (under  the  Act  of  1 881)  of  a  tenant  to  have  his  own  improve- 
ments exempted  from  rents,  and  the  right  (under  the  Act  of  1870)  to 
be  allowed  compensation  in  capital  for  the  same  improvements,  when 
he  is  leaving  the  land.  Take,  for  instance,  the  case  of  improvements 
made  by  the  tenant  but  not  suitable  to  the  holding.  It  is  evident  that 
under  the  Act  of  1870  these  were  justly  excluded  from  any  right  of 
compensation  in  capital.  But  is  it  right  to  make  a  tenant  pay  extra 
rent  on  such  improvements  ?      Evidently  not  ! 


266  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

precisely  this  two-fold  rule  thus  adopted  by  the  judicial 
authority.16  Nevertheless  it  remained  law  for  fifteen 
years,  until  the  Act  of  1896  brought  the  Irish  judges  to 
reason  by  formally  re-affirming  and  re-establishing,  on 
these  two  points,  the  principle  the  enactment  of  which 
had  been  intended  in  1881. 

This  same  Act  of  1896,  moreover,  laid  down  some  very 
precise  rules  for  the  determination  of  "  fair  rent,"  and  as 
to  reductions  for  improvements  carried  out  by  the 
tenants.^  But  the  Irish  judicial  authorities  have  again 
succeeded  in  twisting  them  so  as  to  provide  a  method  of 
unjustly  raising  the  rents. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  an  accepted  legal  principle18 
that,  with  certain  exceptions,  all  improvements  and  outlay 
are  considered  in  the  absence  of  proof  to  the  contrary  to 
be  the  work  of  the  tenant,  and  not  of  the  landlord.  But 
as  regards  this  presumption  the  Land  Commission  simply 
acts  as  if  it  did  not  exist.  In  practice  it  compels  the 
tenants  to  specify  in  writing  the  improvements  for  which 
they  claim  compensation,  and  to  prove  that  they  are 
material.  Consequently  the  tenants,  for  want  of  the 
means  of  proof,  are  often  deprived  of  reductions  in  their 
rent  to  which  their  improvements  entitled  them.1 9 

Again,  the  Act  of  1896  (Section  1)  directs  that  in  each 
case  the  Land  Commission  shall  estimate  successively, 
first  the  gross  figure  at  which  a  fair  rent  would  be  fixed 
if  all  the  improvements  had  been  made  or  acquired  by 
the  landlord  ;  secondly,  the  amount  to  be  deducted  for 
those  improvements  made  by  the  tenant,  so  as  to  arrive 
at,  thirdly,  the  net  fair  rent.  This  is  what  the  Land 
Commission  does  in  each  case  on  a  special  document  called 
the  pink  schedule  ;  only  it  does  it  in  a  way  that  is  unfair 
to  the  tenants.  It  begins,  undoubtedly,  by  estimating 
the   gross    fair   rent  ;    but  it    estimates   it   exclusive  of 

Ib  Cf.  Morley  Committee' s  Report,  paragraph  Improvement. 
17  V.  Section  I.  of  the  Act  of  1896. 

IS  Act  of  1870,  Section  5.      Act  of  1896,  Section  1  (10). 
19  pyy  Commission    Report,    p.     12 — Morley    Committee,    Evidence, 
question   1573,  4004,   5385. 


THE    LAND    QUESTION  267 

buildings,  and  then  afterwards  adds  in  the  fair  rent  for 
the  buildings.  From  the  total  thus  obtained  it  then 
proceeds  to  deduct  the  improvements  made  by  the  tenant. 
But  the  question  arises  : — How  can  one  estimate  the  fair 
rent  of  a  bare  piece  of  land,  exclusive  of  the  buildings  ? 
It  is  manifestly  impossible  to  separate  the  land  from  the 
buildings,  or  the  buildings  from  the  land.  And  what  are 
the  results  of  this  system,  in  practice  ?  In  practice  the 
Commissioners,  when  estimating  the  fair  rent  of  a  farm 
"exclusive  of  the  buildings  on  it,"  unconsciously  take 
account  of  those  buildings  in  their  valuation.  They  then 
count  them  a  second  time  over  when  they  are  adding  the 
rent  of  the  buildings  to  their  first  estimate,  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  the  total  "  gross  fair  rent."  In  this  total 
therefore  the  buildings  have  been  reckoned  twice  over, 
and  it  is  the  tenant  who  bears  the  losses  resulting  from 
this  miscalculation.20 

Another  point.  The  fair  rent  is  to  be  fixed,  as  has  been 
said,  "  having  regard  to  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case, 
holding,  and  district  :  "  it  is  upon  this  phrase  that  the 
Land  Commission  bases  its  claim  to  impose  a  surplus  rent 
on  the  products  of  the  tenants'  industry  or  on  the  interest 
of  their  capital.  George  Curran,  for  instance,  held  a  farm 
of  7  acres  in  the  county  of  Armagh,  on  the  Cope  estate. 
He  planted,  at  his  own  expense,  an  acre  of  orchard  ; 
expended  labour  on  it,  and  denied  himself  any  profit 
from  that  acre  of  land  during  all  the  time  that  the  trees 
were  growing  to  maturity.  At  the  end  of  that  period  the 
Land  Commission  raised  his  rent  by  £1  (one-eighth  of  the 
whole)  on  account  of  the  increased  value  given  to  his 
holding  by  the  orchard.  They  justified  this  decision  on 
the  ground  that  his  land  is  in  a  district  suitable  to  the 
cultivation  of  fruit  trees,  a  fact  which  (according  to  their 
interpretation  of  the  Act)  must  be  taken  into  consideration 

20  It  is  complained  also  that  in  calculating  the  net  cost,  the  Land 
Commission  does  not  take  account  of  the  cost  of  repairs  nor  of  the 
insurance  of  buildings  (Cf.  Royal  Commission  on  Local  Taxation,  1900. 
vol.  V.  (Ireland),  p.  195,  196). 


268  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

when  fixing  the  rent.21  Another  case  :  that  of  a  tenant 
whose  farm  was  situated  by  the  seashore.  At  low  tide 
he  used  to  go  waist-deep  into  the  water  to  cut  the  seaweed 
from  the  rocks,  and  then  would  pile  it  in  heaps  and  burn 
it  for  the  purpose  of  extracting  soda  and  iodide.  In 
this  manner  he  secured  a  small  profit  which  caused  his 
rent  to  be  raised.  This  was  on  the  estate  of  Colonel 
Nolan.  Again  :  Patrick  Mac  Morrow,  a  tenant  on  the 
Phibbs  estate  near  Sligo,  built  at  his  own  expense,  on 
one  of  his  fields  near  the  road,  a  public  house  and  a 
building  which  gave  accommodation  to  the  police.  On 
this  account  his  rent  was  raised  from  £6  15s,  to  £10. — 
Are  not  these  curious  methods  of  defeating  the  most  explicit 
provisions  of  the  Act  to  the  effect  that  rent  is  not  payable 
on  improvements  made  by  the  tenants.22 

Such  decisions  are  obviously  but  little  calculated  to 
inspire  the  tenants  with  confidence  in  the  courts,  that  is 
to  say,  in  the  Land  Commission.  In  practice,  rather  than 
be  duped  into  doing  their  landlord's  work  for  love,  the 
tenants  abstain  from  making  any  improvements. 
Insecurity,  that  curse  of  agriculture,  is  upheld  by  the 
judicial  authorities.  All  progress  is  paralysed  by  this 
spectre  of  higher  rents  resulting  from  improvement.  The 
tenants  live  in  a  state  of  anxiety  and  inertia.  This  is 
the  result,  not  so  much  of  the  Gladstonian  legislation 
itself,  as  of  its  biassed  application  by  the  Land  Commission 
and  the  Irish  Court  of  Appeal,  which  have  been  accused, 
and  not  without  truth,  of  having  done  their  utmost  to 
destroy  the  agrarian  laws  instead  of  applying  them.23 

21  Judgment  of  December  3rd,  1898. 

22  Mr.  Murrough  O'Brien,  Land  Commissioner,  with  regard  to  the 
Phibbs  and  the  Mac  Morrow  cases  above  cited.  Cf.  Father  Finlay's 
articles  The  Art  of  Rent  Fixing,  in  the  New  Ireland  Review  (May  to 
September,  1901). 

23  T.  W.  Russell.  Ireland  and  the  Empire,  London,  1901,  p.  161, 
etc.  This  insecurity  is  the  principal  obstacle  to  the  development  of 
agricultural  co-operation.      (V.  Part  III.,  Chapter  iii.). 


CHAPTER  IL— THE  LAND  QUESTION  {Continued.*) 

As  a  temporary  palliation  and  compromise  the 
Gladstonian  legislation  was  both  necessary  and  beneficial. 
But  it  was  in  no  sense  a  solution  of  the  problem  ;  and 
the  definite  and  permanent  solution  of  the  land  question 
it  certainly  was  not,  and  could  not  claim  to  be.  This  fact 
is  now  admitted  by  everyone  ;  by  the  government,  the 
landlords,  and  the  tenants  alike.  Tenants,  landlords  and 
government,  in  fact  everybody,  is  discontented  for  various 
and  usually  contradictory  reasons,  with  the  regime  of 
"  judicial  liquidation  "  established  by  Mr.  Gladstone. 
Everyone  declares  that  it  cannot  continue  and  that  an 
immediate  end  should  be  made  of  it. 


I. — Land  Purchase  :    The  Ftrst  Attempts. 

But  how  is  it  to  be  ended  ?  What  is  to  be  the  true 
and  final  solution  of  the  problem  ?  Over  twentv-five 
years  ago  the  solution  was  formulated  by  the  founders  of 
the  Land  League,  Michael  Davitt  and  Charles  Parnell  : 
the  landlord  must  be  bought  out,  and  the  peasant  must 
be  made  proprietor  of  the  land  that  he  is  cultivating. 

1  Bibliography,  Chap.  I.  V.  especially,  on  the  Land  Act  of  1903,  our 
communication  to  the  Société  d'Economie  Sociale  (January  nth,  1904, 
Réforme  Sociale  of  March  1st  following).  Bechaux,  La  Question  Agraire 
en  Irlande,  Paris,  1906.  Walker  and  Farran,  The  Law  of  Land  Purchase 
in  Ireland,  Dublin,  1906.  The  Irish  Land  Act,  1903,  Explained,  by 
G.  J.  and  F.  Fotcrell,  solicitors,  Dublin,  1903  (with  the  complete  text 
of  the  law).  The  Land  Conference  and  its  Critics,  by  W.  O'Brien,  Dublin, 
1904.  The  Annual  Reports  of  the  Estates  Commissioners ,  Dublin,  Cf. 
the  Parliamentary  debate  on  the  Act  (Hansard,  March  25  th  to  the 
end  of  August,  1903).  Cf.  Hansard,  24th  March,  1904,  July  8th,  1904, 
March  9th,  1905,  July  20tb,  1905,  and  May  3rd,  1906,  later  Parliamentary 
debates. 


270  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

By  this  two-fold  process  there  will  be  eradicated  once 
and  for  all  that  plague  of  the  land  in  Ireland,  landlordism.2 
Nowadays  there  is  no  question  of  doling  out  assistance 
here  and  there,  in  small  driblets  to  a  few  individual 
tenants  possessing  the  privilege  of  buying  their  holdings 
(as  Gladstone  did  at  the  recommendation  of  John  Bright, 
in  the  Acts  of  1870  and  i88i).3  There  must  be  a  regularly 
organised  comprehensive  scheme  for  the  purchase  of  the 
soil  of  Ireland,  by  means  of  a  system  of  general  advances 
out  of  the  public  funds.  I  do  not  say  that  it  will  be  an 
easy  matter.  The  great  scheme  of  expropriation  which 
Mr.  Gladstone  had  prepared  in  1885,  as  an  accompaniment 
to  his  first  Home  Rule  Bill,  would  probably  have  proved 
impracticable   (in  any  case  it  never   even  reached  the 

-  V.  the  plan  adopted  by  the  Land  League  Convention,  April,  1880, 
in  Davitt's  Fall  of  Feudalism  in  Ireland,  London  and  New  York,  1904, 
p.  241,  etc.  We  may  note  that  no  responsible  organ  of  the  Land  League 
or  the  Nacional  League  nas  ever  recommended  taking  the  land  by 
force  or  expelling  the  landlords  :  the  plans  proposed  have  never  been 
founded  on  any  basis  but  that  of  legal  expropriation  by  means  of  a 
fair  indemnification.  Personally  Mr.  Davitt,  following  the  doctrines 
of  Fintan  Lalor  and  Henry  George,  would  have  been  in  favour  of  a 
plan  for  the  "  nationalisation  "  of  the  soil  ;  this  plan  has  never  found 
any  support  in  Ireland,  where,  on  the  contrary,  the  idea  of  individual 
ownership  is  all  powerful. 

3  The  Act  of  1870  (Section  32,  etc.,  Section  44,  etc.)  authorised  the 
Board  of  Works  to  advance  two-thirds  of  their  purchase  price  to  all 
tenants  who  had  bought  the  ownership  of  their  holdings  before  the 
Landed  Estates  Court.  This  Loan  was  to  be  repaid  in  35  annuities  of 
5  per  cent,  of  the  capital.  S77  tenants  availed  themselves  of  these 
provisions  in  the  Act  of  1870.  The  Act  of  1881  (Section  24  and  the 
following  Sections)  authorised  the  Land  Commission  to  advance  three- 
auarters  of  the  purchase  money  to  tenants  who  wished  to  buy  their 
farms.  The  repayment  of  the  loan  was  to  be  made  as  under  the  Act 
of  1870  ;  731  tenants  availed  themselves  of  these  provisions.  The  Act 
of  1 88 1  also  authorised  the  Land  Commission  under  certain  conditions, 
to  buy  properties  in  order  to  re-sell  them  to  the  farmers  (Section  26, 
modified  by  the  Act  of  1885,  Section  5).  These  provisions  produced 
only  very  few  applications  and  were  abolished  by  the  Act  of  1903, 
which  laid  down  new  rales  for  the  purchase  of  estates.  Why  is  it 
that  all  these  provisions  have  produced  so  little  practical  result  ? 
Because  the  tenants  were  allowed  only  a  portion  of  the  purchase  money, 
and  were  therefore  obliged  to  borrow  the  rest  at  usurious  rates  of 
interest.  We  may  add  that  the  Act  of  1869  for  "the  Disestablishment 
of  the  Anglican  Church  in  Ireland  had  made  provision  for  the  sale  to 
the  farmers  of  the  church  lands,  the  price  to  be  paid  as  regards  25  per 
cent,  in  cash,  and  the  remainder  in  32  annuities  of  5.33  per  cent.  6,057 
farms  out  of  8,432  were  thus  sold  to  the  tenants. 


THE    LAND  QUESTION  271 

point  of  being  debated). 4  But  it  is  the  true  solution,  the 
necessary  and  final  solution  of  the  land  problem.  And 
it  is  so  genuinely  the  Conservative  solution  of  the  question, 
that  the  Conservative  Government  has  adopted  it  for  its 
own,  as  an  opposition  policy  to  the  Gladstonian  legislation. 
The  Conservatives,  indeed,  began  to  apply  it  experimen- 
tally and  on  a  small  scale  as  long  as  twenty  years  ago. 
This  was  the  aim  of  the  Land  Purchase  Act  of  1885, 
called  after  its  author  the  Ashbourne  Act. 5 

To  sum  up  the  system.  In  case  of  a  landlord  wishing 
to  sell,  the  Imperial  Treasury  advances  the  whole  of  the 
purchase  money  on  certain  guarantees,  and  provides  for 
repayment  by  the  tenant-purchaser  in  49  annuities, 
respectively  equal  to  4  per  cent,  of  the  purchase  price 
(including  interest  and  sinking-fund)  :  a  fund  of  5  millions 
sterling  (increased  to  10  millions  by  an  Act  of  1889)  is 
established  for  the  purpose  ol  supplying  these  advances.6 
As  the  purchase  prices  ruled  low  (they  average  about 
U]\  years  purchase)  the  annuities  payable  by  tenant- 
purchasers,  far  from  exceeding  their  former  rents,  show 
an  average  rate  of  about  one-third  less.  These  figures 
prove  the  immense  advantage  of  the  system  for  the 
farmers. 7     We  may  add  that,  to  become  binding,  these 

4  The  estates  of  landlords  were  to  be  bought  by  the  farmers  at  20 
years  purchase  (after  deducting  expenses),  through  Treasury  Loans 
repayable  in  50  years. 

5  Purchase  of  Land  (Ireland)  Act,  48  and  49  Victoria,  Ch.  73.  This 
Act  has  been  amended  by  two  Acts  of  1888  and  1889  (51  and  52  Vict, 
ch.  49;    and  52  and  53  Vict.,  ch.  13). 

6  The  Act  of  1885,  Sections  2  and  4;  Act  of  1888,  Section  1.  The 
usual  maximum  of  these  loans  is  ^3,000  per  tenant.  The  Land  Commis- 
sion can  raise  it  to  ^5,000  (Act  of  1888,  Section  2).  One-fifth  of  the 
piice  is  retained  as  guarantee  deposit  by  the  Commission,  and  is  only 
paid  to  the  landlord  when  the  repayments  to  the  Treasury  have  reached 
a  total  equivalent  to  it  in  amount  (Act  of  1885,  Section  3).  The 
guarantee  deposit  bears  interest  at  3  per  cent.  The  Act  of  1896  (Section 
29)  has  authorised  the  Land  Commission  to  exempt  the  tenants  from 
the  guarantee  deposit.  The  Act  of  1S89  (Section  1)  authorises  the 
Land  Commission  to  advance  loans  to  a  tenant-purchaser,  to  enable 
him  to  buy  supplementary  land,  under  certain  conditions  (this  provision 
has  never,  I  think,  been  applied  in  practice). 

7  Report  of  the  Land  Commission  for  1905-1906,  p.  94  and  101.  The 
average  difference  between  the  annuity  and  fhe  former  rent  comes  out 
at  31.6  per  cent. 


272  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

transactions  must  be  ratified  by  the  Land  Commission 
(the  number  of  the  Commissioners  being  increased  by 
two),  which,  after  due  enquiry  and  inspection  can  refuse 
its  approval,  firstly,  if  the  price  is  too  low  and  therefore 
calculated  to  injure  superior  interests  to  those  of  the 
landlord  ;  or  secondly,  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  price  is 
too  high,  that  is  to  say,  more  than  the  true  value  of  the 
land  which  forms  the  security  of  the  Treasury. 

The  experiment  of  1885  succeeded  beyond  all  hopes. 
By  1891  the  10  millions  sterling  assigned  for  it  had  already 
been  exhausted,  and  25,367  tenants  had  been  turned  into 
owners  of  their  farms.8  Its  success  even  alarmed  some 
of  the  landlords,  who  began  to  fear  that  the  farmers 
would  combine  and  force  them  to  sell  their  land.  However 
this  may  be,  in  1891  the  Conservative  Government  passed 
a  new  Act,  which,  under  pretence  of  regulating  the  progress 
of  the  operations,  complicated  it  to  such  an  extent  that 
the  machine  almost  stopped  working.  9  In  1896,  by 
another  Act,  the  existing  evils  were  slightly  remedied, 
but  only  to  an  insufficient  extent.  It  possessed,  however, 
at  least  one  advantage,  namely,  that  of  allowing  the 
tenant-buyers  to  obtain  reductions  on  their  annuities  of 
from  15  to  18  per  cent. — on  their  undertaking,  of  course, 
to  pay  them  for  a  longer  period  of  time,  in  fact  for  about 
seventy  years  instead  of  only  forty-nine.  This  assurance 
against  eventual  risks  which  might  result  from  a  fall  in 
the    income    obtainable    from    the    land,    constituted    a 

8  Land  Commission  Report,  1905  to  1906,  p.  94  and  95.  It  includes 
2,029  tenants  who  became  owners  on  101  estates  bought  by  the 
Commission. 

9  Purchase  of  Land  {Ireland)  Act  (54  and  55  Vict.  ch.  48).  The 
advances  are  not  to  be  made  in  money,  but  in  Land  Stock  issued  by 
the  Treasury  and  bearing  interest  ac  i\  per  cent.  (Section  1  to  3).  A 
maximum  advance  (raised  several  times  since  then)  is  fixed  for  each 
county  (Section  9).  If  the  annuity  is  less  than  the  former  rent  by 
over  20  per  cent.,  it  is  to  be  raised  for  the  first  5  years  to  80  per  cent, 
of  that  rent.  The  difference  goes  to  form  the  insurance  money  (abolished 
in  1896).  (Section  8).  A  rather  complicated  Guarantee  Fund  is 
established,  comprising  a  cash  portion  and  a  contingent  portion,  in 
which  all  the  financial  resources  of  Ireland  are  impounded.  It  is 
intended  to  repay  to  the  Consolidated  Fund  all  annuities  that  may 
remain  unpaid  when  their  term  expires.  Moreover  a  Reserve  Fund 
of  £200,000  is  to  be  constituted  (Section  4  to  6). 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  273 

measure  of  great  prudence  and  forethought,  and  one  to 
be  commended  from  all  points  of  view.10 

In  this  connection  it  is  curious  to  note  one  of  the  causes 
that  retarded  these  operations  ;  it  proves  how  closely 
linked  together  is  the  whole  economic  world.  Dating 
from  1891, — it  was  one  of  the  innovations  in  that  Act — 
the  Treasury  paid  the  landlords  their  purchase-price,  not 
in  money,  but  in  Land  Stock,  that  is  to  say,  in  securities 
very  similar  to  British  Consols.  For  a  time  the  landlords 
profited  by  this  arrangement  ;  the  stock,  like  Consols,  was 
quoted  above  par.  But  after  the  Transvaal  War  its 
price  fell,  within  a  few  months,  from  no  to  90  or  91,  with 
the  result  that  the  landlords  no  longer  showed  any  desire 
to  sell  their  estates.  Finally,  in  1903,  it  was  found  that 
under  the  new  system  established  in  1891  and  1896,  only 
38,251  tenants  had  been  turned  into  proprietors  ;  and  at 
that  same  date  the  total  number  of  peasant  owners 
created  from  first  to  last  had  reached  no  higher  figure  than 
73,917. IT      As  Land  Purchase  was  progressing  more  and 

10  Land  Law  (Ireland)  Act  (59  and  60  Vict.,  ch.  47.)  As  to  the 
decennial  reductions  (Section  25)  for  the  second  and  third  decade,  the 
annuity  is  calculated  on  the  capital  remaining  due  at  the  beginning 
of  the  decade  ;  from  the  fourth  onwards  the  annuity  is  calculated 
(until  the  whole  sum  has  been  repaid)  on  the  capital  remaining  due 
at  the  beginning  of  this  decade.  Section  40  of  the  Act  of  1896  introduces 
a  principle  of  compulsion  into  the  procedure  of  land  purchase,  as  far 
as  concerns  estates  sold  by  the  Landed  Estates  Court  (the  successor  of 
the  old  Encumbered  Estates  Court  established  in  1849),  which,  since 
1877,  nas  borne  the  name  of  the  Land  Judge's  Court.  The  Land  Judge, 
after  the  estate  has  been  inspected  and  valued  by  the  Land  Commission , 
is  to  offer  the  tenants  the  choice  of  buying  the  land  that  they  are 
occupying,  at  a  price  and  on  conditions  fixed  by  him  as  reasonable. 
If  three  quarters  of  the  tenants  (in  number  and  in  rateable  value) 
accept  this  offer,  he  can  order  that  the  others  shall  be  considered  to 
have  also  accepted.  The  Land  Commission  then  advances  to  the 
purchasing  tenants  the  sum  fixed  as  price  (the  Land  Commission  always 
reserving  the  right  to  refuse  the  advance  if  the  price  appears  to  it  to 
be  excessive).  From  1896  to  1903,  3,099  tenants  availed  themselves 
of  this  Section  40  of  the  Act.  These  provisions  aimed  at  giving  the 
tenants  in  possession  a  right  of  pieference  in  case  of  sale  before  the 
Land  Judge.  Unfortunately  the  unceasing  conflict  between  the  Land 
Judge  and  the  Land  Commission  and  the  requirements  of  the  Land 
Judge  as  to  selling  price  have  greatly  restricted  the  application  of  the 
Act  on  this  point. 

11  Official  statistics  submitted  to  Parliament  on  March  27th,  1903. 
Cf.  the  Report  of  the  Land  Commission  for  1902  to  1903 — the  total  sum 
advanced  up  to  that  date  amounted  to  ^24,309,098.  These  figures 
include  the  advances  maae  under  Section  40  of  the  Act  of  1896  and 
the  advances  made  through  the  Congested  Districts  Board. 

T 


274  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

more  slowly,  it  was  felt  that  some  new  impulse  must  be 
given  to  the  machine.  This  was  the  aim  of  the  great 
Land  Act  of  1903.  But  before  proceeding  to  study  this 
new  regime,  we  must  pause  to  enquire  what  results, 
financial,  economic  and  social,  have  arisen  out  of  these 
experiments  in  land  purchase,  and  what  criticisms  have 
been  provoked  by  them. 


II. — Results  and  Criticisms. 

To  begin  with  finance.  Have  the  repayment  annuities 
been  discharged  with  regularity  by  the  tenants  ?  To  this 
question  one  can  reply  in  the  affirmative,  but  not  without 
some  reservations.  Out  of  the  total  sum  due  for  annuities 
up  to  November  18th,  1904,  and  amounting  to  £495,375, 
there  remained  on  March  31st,  1905,  some  £15,532  in 
arrear,  or  3.1  per  cent.  On  the  following  July  24th  these 
arrears  had  been  reduced  to  £2,617  or  0-5  per  cent.  In 
the  course  of  its  work  during  1904  and  1905,  the  Land 
Commission  was  compelled  to  sell  92  holdings  owing  to 
default  in  the  payment  of  annuities,  but,  as  regards  75  of 
this  number,  proceedings  were  stayed  owing  to  the 
subsequent  payment  of  arrears  ;  there  remained  in  fact 
17  cases  of  compulsory  expropriation.1  These  arrears 
and  defaults  leave  no  cause  for  uneasiness  as  to  the  mass 
of  the  tenant-purchasers.  Nevertheless  it  points  to  an 
eventual  danger  in  the  event  of  an  agricultural  crisis,  or 
in  case  of  a  large  number  of  peasants  buying  their  land 
at  excessive  prices  (a  point  to  which  we  shall  refer  later 
on).  We  may  add  that  the  Treasury  at  all  events  cannot 
suffer.  In  spite  of  the  improbability  of  any  movement 
in  the  future  analogous  to  the  No  Rent  Campaign,  the 
Treasury  is  perfectly  secured,  not  merely  by  the  value  of 

1  Land  Commission  Report  1904-1905,  p.  9.  The  number  of  the 
tenant-purchasers  who  were  in  arrear  amounted  to  1,897  on  the  31st 
of  March,  1905  ;  and  on  July  24th  following  to  424.  These  figures 
do  not  include  tenant-purchasers  who  had  bought  under  the  Act  of 
1903. 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  275 

the  land,  but  by  the  existence  of  a  considerable  Guarantee 
Fund.  The  Treasury  can  have  recourse  to  the  local 
taxation,  and  to  those  grants  which  it  pays  over  to  the 
local  authorities,  and  from  which,  in  case  of  need,  it  would 
merely  have  to  subtract  the  amount  of  the  possible 
losses2  resulting  from  these  financial  operations.  The 
credit  of  the  United  Kingdom  is  involved  in  no  risk. 

We  go  on  to  the  economic  side  of  the  question.  How 
does  land  purchase  affect  agriculture  and  the  farmers  ? 
A  special  official  enquiry3  of  the  year  1903  lays  it  down 
that  "  the  holdings  of  Tenant  Purchasers  have  largely 
improved  in  all  parts  of  Ii eland  as  regards  cultivation, 
treatment,  and  general  improvement."  The  fertility  of 
the  soil  has  been  increased  ;  on  one  estate  in  County 
Mayo  the  capacity  of  the  holdings  has  been  added  to  by 
50  to  too  per  cent.  Indebtedness,  on  the  other  hand, 
has  decreased.  The  credit  and  the  financial  situation  of 
the  peasant  purchasers  have  made  notable  progress  ;  and 
in  many  places  the  moneylender  has  disappeared.  "  The 
exceptions  to  this  rule  are  of  such  a  nature  as  to  emphasise 
rather  than  detract  from  the  good  effects  of  purchase  " 
on  the  agricultural  situation.  These  exceptions  are 
usually  found  in  cases  where  some  misfortune  has  occurred 
in  the  house  ;  or  where  the  holding  is  too  small  and 
insufficient  to  support  a  family  (a  proof  that  the  "  dwarf  " 
holdings  should  be  enlarged  before  the  tenant  is  allowed 
to  buy  them)  ;  or,  lastly,  where  the  tenant-purchaser 
started  without  capital,  weighed  down  under  charges  too 
heavy  for  him  to  bear  (a  proof  that  advances,  secured  on 
the  land,  ought  to  be  placed  at  the  tenant's  disposal  ; 
and  that  care  should  also  be  taken  lest  the  farmer,  by 

2  Concerning  these  giants  see  Note  to  Sec.  III.  Chap.  IV. 

3  Report  by  W.  F.  Bailey,  Legal  Assistant  Commissioner,  of  an  enquiry 
into  the  present  condition  of  tenant-purchasers  under  the  Land  Purchase 
Acts  (House  of  Commons,  25th  March,  1903).  V.  especially  pp.  3  to  7 
and  10  to  18.  The  tenants  who  have  become  owners  now  hesitate  to 
borrow  money  :  it  seems  to  them  a  wrong.  (lb.  p.  10  and  11).  The 
tendency  to  sub-division  of  small  holdings,  formerly  very  general, 
disappears  with  the  establishment  of  peasant  proprietorship.  (lb.  p. 
8  to  10). 


276  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

buying  his  holdings  at  too  high  a  price,  should  create  too 
heavy  a  charge  on  his  future). 

From  the  social  point  of  view,  the  effects  of  the  purchase 
system  are  no  less  favourable.  Purchase  has  brought 
peace  and  security  to  the  tenants.  Though  still  poor, 
they  are  freed  from  an  intolerable  burden  and  are  therefore 
happy.  "  If  they  do  not  live  better,"  said  an  eye-witness 
who  lives  in  the  West,  "  they  live  less  badly.  Their 
standard  of  life  has  risen.  They  are  more  sober,  more 
industrious,  and  more  inclined  to  be  hopeful."  On  one 
estate  in  the  County  of  Fermanagh  the  consumption  of 
alcohol  has  been  reduced  by  two-thirds,  according  to  the 
testimony  of  the  parish  priest.  The  agrarian  troubles 
have  disappeared  where  purchase  has  been  carried  out  ; 
"  a  spirit  of  content  and  interest  in  the  improvement  of 
their  holdings  has  taken  the  place  of  unrest  and 
discontent."  4 

Will  these  happy  results  of  land  purchase  prove 
permanent  ?  That  is  another  matter.  Those  Cassandras 
of  Ireland,  the  reactionary  landlords,  predict  the  very 
blackest  future  for  the  tenant  purchasers  :  increased  debts, 
sub-division  of  the  land,  general  destruction  of  the  woods, 
ruin  of  agriculture,  in  fact  all  the  evils  which  traditional 
British  prejudices  used  to  attribute  to  peasant  proprietor- 
ship. To  sell  the  land  to  a  buyer  without  capital,  they 
say,  is  an  absurdity  ;  to  sell  him  the  land  by  means  of 
annuities  at  a  rate  lower  than  his  former  rent,  is  a  swindle, 
a  fraud,  and  a  piece  of  jugglery.  Under  pretence  of 
purchase  you  are  in  reality  carrying  through  an  immense 
scheme  of  political  corruption,  from  which  will  result,  as 
from  all  immoral  legislation,  nothing  but  moral  and 
material  disasters. 5 

The  peasants  on  their  part  are  ready  enough  to  criticise, 
not  the  principle  of  purchase,  but  the  complication,  the 
slowness  and  the  inefficiency  of  the  Acts  that  regulate  it. 

4  lb.  p.  12  to  14. 

5  Cf.  O'Connor  Morris.  Present  Irish  Questions,  183,  184,  238  and 
the  following  pages. 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  277 

Indeed  the  system  itself  appealed  to  them  from  the  very 
first.  To  be  masters  in  their  own  house,  what  a  dream 
of  bliss  !  "  We  are  as  happy  as  a  choir  of  angels  "  said 
one  of  them  in  their  imaginative  language.  Unfortunately 
the  legal  delays  are  interminable.  Offers  to  purchase  are 
usually  ill-received  by  the  second  Land  Court  employed  in 
liquidating  the  encumbered  estates  of  the  landlords — I 
mean  that  old  tribunal  which  still  works  on  parallel  lines 
with  the  Land  Commission  and  often  impedes  its 
operations,  the  Court  of  the  Land  Judge  (Landed  Estates 
Court).6  Moreover  the  purchase  offers  are  only  too  often 
declined  by  the  landlords,  who  refuse  to  sell,  or  else 
demand  an  excessive  price — these  transactions  being  all 
voluntary  under  the  now  existing  law.  In  fact  though 
73,917  tenant-purchasers  have  been  created  during  the 
last  18  years  from  1885  to  1903,  one  may  yet  fairly  ask  : 
what  are  these,  out  of  the  544,625  cultivators  existing  in 
Ireland  (in  1903)  ?  At  this  rate  more  than  a  century 
would  elapse  before  the  land  question  was  solved. 

Another  source  of  complication  is  that  73,917  tenant- 

6  The  Landed  Estates  Court,  called  the  Land  Judge's  Court  since  the 
Judicature  Ac'c  of  1877  ;  ii  succeeded  the  old  Encumbered  Estates 
Court  founded  in  1849  (see  earlier  in  chapter).  Legally  speaking 
its  purpose  is  by  compulsory  sale  to  liquidate  bankrupt  estates  on  the 
demand  of  the  creditors  ;  and  it  is  empowered  to  take  similar  steps  on 
the  demand  of  the  landlords,  in  the  case  of  estates  that  are  merely 
insolvent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  instead  of  "  realising  "  these  estates, 
it  has  taken  to  merely  administering  them  through  a  receiver,  and 
constantly  postponing  their  sale  under  pretence  of  legal  difficulties, 
etc.  :  it  has  thus  become  a  vast  administrator  of  immovable  property, 
an  immense  rent  office  with  an  army  of  agents,  receivers,  etc.  In  1896 
the  number  of  estates  under  its  jurisdiction  was  estimated  at  1,500, 
the  rent  from  them  at  ^638,000,  and  their  capital  value  13  millions 
sterling.  Some  absolute  orders  for  sale  have  remained  unexecuted  for 
23  years.  Some  estates  have  remained  in  court  for  40  years.  In  one 
case,  all  the  parties  interested  had  died  before  it  was  decided.  During 
the  last  few  years  the  delays  have  diminished  but  not  disappeared. 
We  may  add  that  the  Land  Judge  administers  his  estates  with  great 
severity  as  regards  the  tenants,  whom  he  constantly  threatens  or 
punishes  for  contempt  of  court;  moreover,  as  representing  the  landlord's 
interest  he  is  continually  trying  to  raise  the  rents  as  high  as  possible. 
He  has  never  done  anything  to  assist  the  tenants  towards  buying  their 
holdings,  and  has  often  found  himself  in  sharp  conflict  with  the  Land 
Commission  as  regards  the  administration  of  the  laws  of  land  purchase. 
Everybody  calls  for  the  suppression  of  the  Land  Judge  and  the  fusion 
of  this  court  with  the  Land  Commission. 


278  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

purchasers,  scattered  all  over  Ireland,  pay  annuities  which 
usually  rule  lower  than  the  rents  paid  by  their  less 
fortunate  neighbours  whose  landlords  have  refused  to 
sell.  The  latter  naturally  look  upon  this  state  of  things 
as  unfair.  Why  should  others  obtain  relief,  they  say, 
and  not  we  ?  Why  should  we  continue  to  pay  rents  that 
are  too  high,  while  these  other  tenants  who  are  our 
neighbours,  actually  pay  less  in  order  to  become  owners 
of  the  soil  ?  Such  inequality  of  treatment  cannot  long 
continue.  The  experiment  of  land  purchase  has  succeeded  : 
it  must  therefore  be  pushed  forward  to  its  conclusion. 
An  end  must  be  made  of  it.  Voluntary  sale,  and  the 
system  of  purchase  by  mutual  agreement,  will  never 
achieve  this  ;  then  let  them  order  compulsory  sale,  as  a 
universal  measure,  for  the  lands  that  we  are  cultivating. 
We  want  the  legal  expropriation  of  the  landlords,  the  end 
of  this  hybrid  regime  called  dual  ownership,  and  the  final 
abolition  of  this  curse  called  landlordism  !  7 

A  general  and  compulsory  expropriation  of  the  landlords 
is  no  small  matter.  It  has  been  calculated  that  it  would 
require  an  advance  from  the  Treasury  of  120  millions 
sterling.  Doubtless  one  must  not  unduly  recoil  at  the 
idea  of  compulsion  applied  to  such  an  undertaking.8 
Compulsion  is  often  applied  to  public  purposes  less 
evidently  useful  and  vital  to  a  nation  than  this  ;  in  any 
case  the  Gladstonian  legislation  has  done  more  injury  to 
the  landlords  than  would  now  result  from  legal  expropria- 
tion. Doubtless  also  an  analogous  transaction,  the 
purchase  of  seignorial  rights,  has  been  successfully 
negotiated  in  many  countries,  though  at  a  time  when  it 
was  easier  than  now,  because  there  was  less  competition 
in  the  world  for  agricultural  produce.  We  may  remember 
that  it  was  carried  out  by  Prussia  in  1850,  and  by  Russia 


7  In  the  Act  of  1891  an  endeavour  was  made  to  lessen  these 
inequalities  by  a  system  of  insurance  money,  but  this  system  did  not 
last. 

8  See  the  justification  of  compulsory  expropriation  as  applied  to  the 
Irish  landlord,  by  Matthew  Arnold  in  Irish  Essays,  p.  27. 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  279 

after  1860.9  Nevertheless  one  cannot  deny  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  such  an  operation  in  Ireland,  where  it  would 
be  rendered  harder  by  the  sub-division  of  holdings  and  by 
the  excessive  amount  of  land  under  pasturage  ;  and 
retarded  by  the  universal  complication  of  everything 
connected  with  the  law,  especially  in  regard  to  the  proving 
of  titles  to  property.  One  can  hardly  feel  astonished 
that  the  landlords,  who  had  always  protested  against 
purchase  by  friendly  agreement,  should  have  raised  a  loud 
outcry  against  this  "  piece  of  madness,"  this  "  shameless 
confiscation,"  called  compulsory  purchase.  According  to 
them  it  would  mean  driving  the  civilising  element  out  of 
Ireland  for  ever,  and  light-heartedly  provoking  a  No-Rent 
campaign,  in  fact  a  general  land  strike  throughout  the 
country  ! 

However  this  may  be,  the  compulsory  expropriation  of 
the  landlords  formed  far  too  fine  a  programme  of  agitation 
not  to  be  seized  by  the  Irish  Nationalists  at  the  very  first 
opportunity.  This  opportunity  came  in  the  year  1900, 
when  unity  was  re-established  within  the  Irish  party 
through  the  influence  of  Mr.  William  O'Brien  and  the 
United  Irish  League.  For  two  years  from  that  date  the 
land  war  raged  throughout  Ireland.  The  tenants,  by 
mutual  agreement,  would  go  to  their  landlords  and  address 
them  more  or  less  in  the  following  terms  : — "  We  are 
paying  unfair  and  excessive  rents.  There  are  only  two 
alternatives  left  :  you  must  either  reduce  our  rents  as  low 

9  The  Prussian  Act  of  1850  organised  the  purchase  of  rents  and 
seignorial  dues  at  a  price  of  from  18  to  20  times  the  revenue  of  the 
dues.  The  state  created  at  the  same  time,  a  certain  number  of  agrarian 
banks  which  issued  shares  in  order  to  pay  the  purchase  price  uo  the 
lords.  The  peasants  were  to  repay  these  advances  iD  annuities  of 
4.5  per  cent,  during  56  years,  or  of  5  per  cent,  during  47  years. 

In  Russia  (Act  of  i860)  the  purchase  price  was  fixed  by  the  State 
at  165  times  the  rent  or  clue.  The  purchase-money  was  advanced  by 
the  State  itself.  The  repayment  was  arranged  in  49  annuities  of  6 
per  cent,  of  the  price  of  sale.  A  recent  Ukase  has  definitely  remitted 
the  rights  of  purchase  that  remained  due  on  January  1st,  1907  (about 
90  million  roubles). 

In  Bavaria  a  scheme  of  purchase  was  initiated  in  1848  at  a  price 
representing  20  times  the  rent,  this  amount  being  paid  off  by  an  annuity 
of  which  the  State  retained  one-tenth  as  a  rent-charge. 


28o  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

as  the  annuities  paid  by  our  neighbours,  the  Tenant- 
Purchasers,  or  else  you  must  sell  us  the  land.      Sale  or 
reduction,  one  or  the  other,  we  must  have."      Simul- 
taneously the  League  was  carrying  on  a  campaign  against 
agrarian   "  congestion  "  and  the  excessive  grazing,  and 
was  demanding  a  "  redistribution  "  of  the  land  devoted 
to   cattle-breeding   in  order   to     restore   some   of   it    to 
cultivation.       In     Ulster,     too,     the     "  loyalist  "     and 
Presbyterian  peasants  rose  in  revolt  against  landlordism 
and  claimed  a  general  scheme  of  land    purchase.      The 
agitation  produced  its  results.       On  the  one  hand,  the 
great  reactionary  landlords  responded  by  declaring  war 
against  their  assailants,  and  founded  the  Land  Trust  in 
order  to  provide  funds  for  the  campaign.      But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  more  moderate  section  showed  themselves 
favourably   disposed   towards   the   idea   of  conciliation. 
These   "  moderates  "  advocated  an  understanding  with 
the  peasants  whereby  both  sides  might  arrive  at  some 
practical  solution  of  the  land  question.     They  perceived 
that  the  Conservative  Government,  to  whom  probably 
there  remained  but  a  short  lease  of  life,  was  well  disposed 
towards   the  landlord   interest  ;    and   being   anxious   to 
benefit  by  this  favourable  disposition,  they  made  every 
endeavour  to  pave  the  way  for  intervention  in  the  land 
deadlock,  by  Act  of  Parliament.      In  December,   1902, 
they  invited  representatives  of  the  Nationalist  party  to  a 
friendly    "  Conference,"   under   the   presidency   of   Lord 
Dunraven.     They  persuaded  them  to  renounce  the  idea 
of  expropriation  and  compulsory  sale,  in  order  to  obtain 
from  the  British  Parliament  a  gilded  form  of  compulsion, 
namely,    a   large   subsidy   of   money   to    be   applied   in 
facilitating  the  proposed  settlement.      Finally,  in  agree- 
ment with  the  tenants,  they  laid  down  the  basis  and  the 
conditions  of  an  acceptable  scheme  for  the  general  purchase 
of  the  land.10        It  was  this  preliminary  understanding 

10  For  the  history  of  this  "  Land  Conference  "  V.  our  article  in  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes  of  May  15th,  1903,  l'Irlande  et  l'Impérialisme 
Britannique,  p.  241,  etc.     This  Conference,  at  which  the  tenants  were 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  281 

between  the  parties,  since  known  as  the  Dunraven  Treaty, 
which  induced  the  Government  at  length  to  take  action. 
Mr.  Wyndham,  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  prepared  a 
Bill  designed  to  develop  and  complete  the  business  of 
land  purchase,  and  this  Bill  became  law  in  August,  1903. 
We  will  now  set  forth  the  principal  provisions  of  this  new 
and  great  Land  Act,  and  give  some  account  of  the  results 
that  have  followed  from  it. 


III. — The  Land  Act  of  1903. 

It  provides  for  the  establishment  of  a  whole  system  or 
land  purchase  by  the  farmers,  land  purchase  based  on 
friendly  agreement,  by  means  of  which  Mr.  Wyndham 
expected  to  see  a  complete  transfer  of  the  soil  of  Ireland 
carried  through  and  terminated,  within  fifteen  years.  Its 
aim  is  not  legal  expropriation,  nor  even  indirect  compulsion 
to  sell.  It  is  an  Act  of  an  optional  nature,  designed  to 
attain  its  ends  by  persuasion,  in  fact  one  might  say,  by 
inciting  the  owners  to  sell.  It  offers  tangible  returns  to 
landlords  who  sell  their  land,  while  at  the  same  time  it 
holds  out  advantages  (of  a  somewhat  illusory  character, 
perhaps)  before  the  eyes  of  the  tenants  who  think  of 
buying.  It  provides,  moreover,  a  certain  number  of 
beneficent    though  inadequate  measures  with  regard  to 

represented  by  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell,  Mr.  John  Redmond,  Mr.  William 
O'Brien,  and  Mr.  T.  Harrington,  laid  it  down  as  a  principle  that  in 
order  to  make  land  purchase  general,  both  buyers  and  sellers  must 
obtain  reciprocal  advantages.  The  purchase-price  was  to  be  calculated 
on  the  basis  of  second-term  judicial  rents  or  their  equivalent.  The 
landlords  were  to  receive  a  sum  which,  invested  at  3  or  3  J  per  cent., 
would  bring  them  in  an  income  equal  to  their  rents  after  deducting 
expenses  of  administration.  The  annuities  to  be  paid  by  the  tenants 
should  be  calculated  so  as  to  allow  a  reduction  equivalent  to  from  1 5 
to  25  per  cent,  on  the  amount  of  their  rents  ;  the  difference  between 
these  prices  should  be  payable  by  the  Treasury.  The  system  would 
be  compulsory  in  so  far  as  the  advances  to  be  made  by  the  Treasury 
should  be  limited  to  agreements  executed  without  more  than  5  years 
delay.  The  report  concluded  by  asserting  the  necessity  of  legislative 
provisions  as  regards  the  reinstating  of  unfairly  evicted  tenants  and 
the  enlargement  of  "  dwarf  "  holdings  by  allotting  to  them  lands 
devoted  to  cattle-breeding. 


282  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

the  "  re-settling  "  of  estates  ravaged  by  congestion  and, 
further,  with  regard  to  the  reinstatement  of  tenants  who 
had  been  unjustly  evicted  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years  of  the  land  war.  We  may  add  that  it  is  an  Act 
passed  by  a  government  in  alliance  with  the  landlords, 
and  that,  consequently,  it  barely  attempts  to  conceal, 
under  a  show  of  impartiality,  the  various  adroit  efforts 
made  to  favour  these  allies,  by  raising  the  price  of  land. 
For  this  reason,  though  undoubtedly  an  advance  towards 
the  solution  of  the  land  question,  it  runs  the  risk  of 
provoking  a  future  recrudescence  of  agrarian  trouble  in 
Ireland. 

The  Act  of  1903,  to  summarise  the  matter,  provides  an 
entirely  new  procedure  with  regard  to  land  purchase.  It 
does  not  destroy  the  old  system,  but  merely  superimposes 
itself  upon  it.  The  parties,  both  landlords  and  tenants, 
are  still  allowed  perfect  freedom  in  agreeing  upon  the 
price.  But  these  sales  are  no  longer  limited  to  individual 
tenants  or  holdings  ;  they  are  applied,  en  bloc,  to  a 
whole  estate.1  They  are,  moreover,  under  the  control 
and  sanction  of  a  new  department,  created  within  the 
body  of  the  Land  Commission,  and  known  as  the  Estates 
Commissioners  (three  in  number,)  whose  special  duty  it 
is  to  administer  the  new  Act.2  The  Act  facilitates  their 
operations  in  several  ways  :  firstly,  by  freeing  them  from 
certain  duties  and  fees  payable  to  the  Treasury  (stamp 

1  That  is  to  say,  by  parcels  of  land  which  the  Estates  Commissioners 
regard  as  forming  an  estate  for  the  purposes  of  the  Act  (Section  98, 
paragraph  1).  One  of  the  drawbacks  of  dealing  by  estates  and  not 
by  individuals  is  that  when  selling  property,  the  bad  land  is  paid  for 
at  the  same  rate  as  the  good  land.  On  the  other  hand,  by  its  elasticity, 
this  arrangement  leaves  the  Estates  Commissioners  free  to  refuse  their 
sanction  to  the  sale  of  an  estate  if  they  consider  the  price  too  high  ; 
or  to  insist  upon  re-settling  in  the  case  of  those  in  congested  districts. 
To  prevent  their  sale  they  need  only  refuse  to  consider  them  as 
"  estates  "  within  the  meaning  of  the  Act. 

2  Section  23.  One  of  these  three  was  already  a  member  of  the  Land 
Commission.  As  a  set-off  to  the  others,  and  by  way  of  economy,  two 
posts  now  occupied  by  Land  Commissioners  will  remain  vacant  on  the 
letirement  or  the  decease  of  their  past  holders.  The  Estates  Commis- 
sioners are  officials  whose  duties  are  partly  administrative  and  partly 
judicial  in  character.  In  their  administrative  capacity  their  actions 
can  be  discussed  in  Parliament  ;    they  receive  instructions  from  "  the 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  283 

duties  and  registration  duty). 3  It  confers  on  e very- 
landlord  the  power  of  selling,  even  in  cases  of  entail  or 
of  superior  interests,  provided  that  he  can  prove  that  he 
or  his  predecessors  have  received  rent  from  the  land  for 
at  least  six  years. 4  Finally  it  simplifies  and  shortens  the 
procedure  by  means  of  a  special  system  known  as  the 
"  zones."  If  the  parties  concerned  agree  to  work  under 
this  system  they  can  only  fix  the  purchase  price  between 
certain  maxima  and  minima  laid  down  by  law  and  called 
"  zones  " — that  is  to  say,  the  purchase  price  must  be 
such  that  the  annuity  due  from  the  tenant  purchaser  will 
represent  a  reduction  of  not  less  than  10  per  cent,  and 
not  more  than  30  per  cent,  on  his  former  rent  (in  the  case 
of  second  term  rents,  i.e.,  those  already  fixed  judicially 
for  the  second  period  of  fifteen  years).  In  the  case  of 
first  term  rents  the  reduction  must  be  not  less  than  20 
and  not  more  than  40  per  cent,  on  the  former  rent. 5  In 
all  cases  within  the  zones  the  Estates  Commissioners  are 
compelled  to  sanction  the  sale  without  comment  (unless 
indeed,    they    refuse    to    regard    the    lands  in  question 

Castle  "  (the  first  instructions  given  them  by  the  Conservative  Govern- 
ment were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  ill  calculated  to  promote  the  success 
of  the  Act).  But  in  their  judicial  capacity  they  are  independent  of 
the  Government.  They  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  annul,  as  exceeding 
his  powers,  certain  rules  of  procedure  laid  down  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant. 
(V.  the  Downes-Martin  case,  January  i/tn,  1906).  They  can,  and  if 
one  party  to  the  case  insists,  are  bound  to,  refer  points  of  law  to  the 
Judicial  Commissioner. 

3  Sections  49  and  50. 

4  Section  17.  Cf.  Sections  15,  70.  The  power  of  sale  is  thus  enlarged 
and  simplified,  and  the  tenant-purchaser  is  at  once  provided  with  a 
clear  title.  But  the  allotment  and  distribution  of  the  purchase -price 
(except  the  bonus,  of  which  we  shall  have  occasion  to  speak)  are  subject 
to  legal  proof,  and  all  parties  interested  are  entitled  to  be  heard  upon 
it  (Section  24).  This  clearing  of  title  is  highly  complicated  ;  for  the 
land  law  involves,  according  to  English  law,  many  sub-divisions, 
and,  moreover,  the  deeds  for  the  transfer  of  property  are  not  submitted 
to  any  system  of  public  registration.  Various  laws  have  now  made 
such  registration  compulsory  in  Ireland  for  tenant-purchasers  (and 
optional  for  other  owners),  and  have  set  up  local  land  registers.  But 
these  laws  are  far  from  being  adequate. 

5  Secticn  1.  These  limits  do  not  apply  to  congested  estates,  nor  to 
purchases  made  by  the  Congested  Districts  Board  (Cf.  below,  p.  297). 
Nor  do  they  apply  to  tenants  whose  rent  is  not  judicially  fixed.  In 
all  these  cases  the  Estates  Commissioners  preserve  their  rights  of 
inspection,   enquiry,   and  of  refusing   their   approval.       According   to 


284  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

as  forming  an  estate).6  But  supposing  the  agreed  price 
is  outside  the  zones  ?  In  that  case  the  Commissioners 
remain  masters  of  the  situation,  as  under  the  former  Acts. 
After  due  enquiry  and  inspection,  they  may  refuse  to 
sanction  the  operation. 7  Thus  in  order  to  secure  greater 
rapidity  of  procedure,  the  parties  concerned  are  encouraged 
to  agree  to  a  price  within  the  zones.  But  the  following 
point  must  be  noted.  The  minimum  price  fixed  by  the 
zones  is  noticeably  higher  than  the  average  prices  paid 
for  land  under  the  former  Acts.  From  1885  to  1903  the 
average  price  paid  by  the  tenants  was  17^  years  purchase, 
whereas  the  minimum  price  within  the  zone  S3Tstem  under 
this  new  Act  corresponds  to  18%  (for  first-term  rents), 
or  21  \  years  purchase  (for  second-term  rents).  Here  one 
may  clearly  see  an  attempt  made  by  the  Conservative 
Government  to  raise  prices  by  artificial  means  for  the 
benefit  of  the  landlord.8 

We  will  now  pass  on  to  the  main  question,  that  is  to 
say,    the   new   advantages   which    this    Act    confers   on 

Section  i,  paragraph  i,  in  line,  they  are  authorised,  according  to  their 
judgment,  to  treat  a  first-term  rent  as  if  it  were  a  second  term. 

Why  is  there  a  minimum  price  fixed  in  the  Zones  ?  The  framers  of 
the  Act  say  that  it  is  designed,  not  as  a  protection  for  the  tenants, 
but  in  order  to  safeguard  interests  prior  to  those  of  the  landlords, 
creditors,  etc.  As  regards  this  point,  one  cannot  help  observing  that 
the  price  of  land  does  not  depend  on  the  mortgages  with  which  it  is 
charged.  This  institution  of  a  minimum  price  seems  to  be  an  indirect 
method  of  raising  the  purchase  price. 

6  Section  98,  sub-sec.  1  of  the  Act.  This  is  their  sole  means  of  refusing 
to  advance  money  in  cases  where  the  price  is  so  high  that  the  land 
would  not  form  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  Treasury  (this  was 
considered  to  be  the  case  by  the  Estates  Commissioners  and  by  the 
Judicial  Commissioner  in  the  case  of  the  Blake-Forster  Estate,  19th 
January  and  27th  July,   1905). 

7  Section  1,  sub-sec.  2  and  Section  5.  Inspection,  according  to  the 
framers  of  the  Act,  greatly  delays  the  completion  of  these  sales.  It 
was  for  this  reason  that  they  endeavoured  to  suppress  it  by  means 
of  the  zones.  This  suppression  had  also  another  end  in  view.  Inspection 
by  the  Land  Commission  kept  down  the  purchase  price,  in  view  of  the 
Treasury's  guarantees.  To  suppress  the  inspection  meant  raising  the 
price. 

8  The  Nationalists  have  never  ceased  demanding  the  abolition  of  the 
"  zones,"  which  they  say,  with  some  show  of  reason,  have  vitiated 
the  market.  Inspection,  they  very  justly  observe,  is  indispensable  in 
the  case  of  loans  on  land  (V.  Hansard,  February  4th,  1904,  Mr. 
MacHugh's  amendment). 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  285 

landlords  and  tenants.  To  begin  with  the  case  of  the 
landlords.  They  obtain  benefits  of  many  kinds.  They 
are  paid  in  cash  instead  of  (as  has  been  the  case  since 
1891)  in  stock  which  had  fallen  considerably  below  par.  9 
Over  and  above  their  price  of  sale,  the  Treasury  allows 
them,  as  a  graceful  present,  a  bonus  or  extra  premium 
amounting  to  12  per  cent,  on  the  purchase  price.10  Special 
facilities  are  offered,  in  the  case  of  trustees,  as  regards  the 
reinvestment  of  the  purchase  moneys.11  Finally,  under 
certain  circumstances,  they  can,  when  selling  their  land, 
get  advances  on  their  demesne  from  the  Land  Commission 
(under  form  of  purchase  and  re-sale).12  We  now  come  to 
the  case  of  the  tenants.  Theoretically  their  advantages 
are  double  those  of  the  landlords.  In  the  first  place  the 
maximum  advance  of  capital  that  can  be  made  to  them 
for  the  purchase  of  their  land  is  raised  from  £3,000  or 
£5,000  sterling  (according  to  the  case  in  question),  to 
^ooo.^  This  provision  benefits  only  the  big  farmers  of 
Leinster  or  Munster,  whose  cases  are  not  the  most  urgent. 
Secondly,  the  repayment  annuities  do  not,  as  heretofore, 
amount  to  4  per  cent,  of  the  capital  to  be  repaid,  but  only 
to  3 J-  per  cent.  ;  they  are  reduced,  in  fact,  by  at  least 
one-fifth. :4  Let  us  enquire  what  this  means.  In  criticising 
an  annuity  there  are  two  elements  to  be  considered,  the 
amount  of  the  annuity  and  its  duration.  In  this  case 
the  amount  of  the  annuity  is  less  than  heretofore.  But 
how  long  must  its  payment  continue  ?  Formerly  the 
tenant-purchaser  had  the  choice  of  either  paying  it  off  in 

9  Section  27. 

i°  Section  48.  It  is  paid  to  the  landlord  in  person  and  not  to  the 
creditors  or  holders  of  prior  claims.  When,  however,  the  estate  is  so 
heavily  encumbered  that  the  landlord  will  receive  none  of  the  purchase 
price,  the  bonus  follows  the  purchase  price  and  is  distributed  with  it. 
There  is  no  bonus  in  the  case  of  compulsory  sales.  {Cf.  the  Act  of 
1904,  which  reasserted  the  intention  of  the  framers  of  the  1903  Act  ; 
the  latter  had  been  misinterpreted  by  the  Law  Courts,  as  regards  the 
bonus). 

11  Sections  51  and  52. 

12  Section  3,  Sections  11  and  24. 
J3  Section  I,  sub-sec.  4. 

z4  Section  45.  The  interest  remains  at  2|  per  cent  But  the  sinking 
fund  portion  is  reduced  from  i|  to  \  per  cent. 


286  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

49  fixed  annuities  or  in  70  annuities  with  reductions  every 
ten  years.  The  latter  system  was  exceedingly  prudent 
and  advantageous.  Now,  however,  he  is  no  longer  given 
any  choice.  He  must  pay  the  fixed  annuity  without  any 
decennial  reductions,  and  pay  it,  not  for  forty-nine  years 
only,  but  for  sixty-eight  and  a  half.  Now,  as  heretofore, 
he  must  sooner  or  later  repay  to  the  Treasury  in  annuities 
the  full  amount  of  capital  that  it  advanced  to  him.  I 
do  not,  therefore,  see  that  the  advantage  claimed,  that  is 
to  say,  the  reduction  in  the  amount  of  the  annuity,  can, 
in  the  face  of  the  prolongation  of  the  term,  be  called  a 
real  advantage.  The  tenant  gains  nothing  by  the  new 
system.  I  might  even  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  loses, 
or,  at  all  events,  runs  the  risk  of  losing, — for  the  following 
reason  :  Seeing  that  the  amount  of  the  annuity  is  less 
than  formerly,  the  tenant-purchaser  finds  that  by  the 
same  purchase  price  he  will  get  a  greater  reduction  of  his 
annual  payment.  This  greater  reduction  acts  as  a 
temptation.  He  forgets  that  this  very  reduction  means 
paying  a  far  higher  capital  sum  in  the  end,  under  this 
new  Act,  than  it  would  have  meant  under  former  Acts  ; 
and  that  he  will  now  commit  himself  to  paying  a  far 
bigger  price  to  the  landlord  for  his  land  than  he  would 
formerly  have  cared  to  risk.  This  is  not  merely  a 
supposition.  I  am  stating  what  has  actually  taken  place, 
and  describing  how  the  tenants  have  allowed  themselves 
tc  be  deceived  by  a  system  which  is  doubtless  veiy 
ingenious,  but  also  very  dangerous. 

At  this  point  it  will  be  well  to  notice  some  of  the 
accessory  provisions  of  the  Act.  One  of  them,  as  a 
measure  of  peace,  aims  at  wiping  out  the  past  by 
reinstating  the  tenants  who  have  been  unjustly  evicted 
during  the  long  Land  War  since  1879.  The  Estates 
Commissioners  can  advance  to  these  evicted  tenants  (or 
their  living  representatives)  such  sums  as  may  be  necessary 
for  buying  back  their  former  holdings,  or  for  acquiring 
untenanted  land  on  other  estates  sold  under  the  Act.  It 
is  a  regrettable  fact  that  this  provision  has  as  yet  been 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  287 

applied  in  only  a  few  cases.1 5  Another  important  point  : 
The  Estates  Commissioners  can  buy  estates  on  application 
by  the  landlords,  and  under  certain  specified  conditions, 
with  a  view  to  re-sale  to  the  tenants.16  They  are  more 
especially  empowered  to  buy  estates  considered  to  be 
congested  under  the  somewhat  narrow  definition  of  the 
Act.1 7  They  can  buy  untenanted  land  in  order  to  re-settle 
and  enlarge  the  holdings  on  those  estates.18 

They  can  execute  all  requisite  improvements  on  the 
estates  before  reselling  them,  and  can  obtain  from  the 

x5  Section  2.  (Similar  advances  may  be  made  to  tenants  in  possession 
on  estates  that  have  been  sold,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  buy  unoccupied 
land  with  which  to  enlarge  their  "  dwarf  "  holdings).     On  March  31st, 

1906,  5,287  applications  for  reinstatement  had  been  received  ;  out  of 
this  number  284  tenants  had  been  reinstated  by  their  former  landlords, 
and  103  restored  to  possession  and  provided  with  fresh  holdings  by 
the  Estates  Commissioners  (Report  of  the  Estates  Commissioners  for 
1903  to  1906).      We  may  add  that  quite  recently,  on  February  14th, 

1907,  Mr.  Birrell,  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  laid  before  the  House 
of  Commons  some  later  figures  which  mark  a  certain  development  of 
these  operations.  Out  of  6,680  applications  for  reinstatement  received 
up  to  date  (from  which  must  be  deducted  1,347  as  unqualified)  there 
had  been  465  reinstatements  carried  out  by  the  landlords  with  the 
financial  assistance  of  the  Estates  Commissioners,  and  179  tenants 
installed  on  lands  bought  by  the  Estates  Commissioners.  Mr.  Birrell, 
moreover,  gave  a  formal  assurance  that  the  Act  as  relating  to  the 
evicted  tenants  should  receive  prompt  and  full  application. 

Ib  Section  6.  Three-quarters  of  the  tenants  must  undertake  to  buy 
their  holdings.  (The  Lord  Lieutenant  may,  under  special  circumstances, 
annul  this  condition).  On  March  31st,  1906,  only  58  estates  had  been 
bought  by  the  Estates  Commissioners  at  a  total  price  of  £1,419,923. 
As  a  rule  the  landlords  prefer  to  come  to  a  direct  understanding  with 
the  tenants,  from  whom  they  hope  to  obtain  a  higher  price.  The 
maximum  value  of  lands  permitted  to  be  vested  in  the  Land  Commission 
is  5  millions  sterling  (Section  9). 

x7  Section  6,  sub-sees.  4  and  5.  The  special  condition  above  mentioned 
does  not  apply  to  the  case  of  a  congested  estate,  but  the  Lord  Lieutenant 
must  intervene  in  order  to  certify  the  necessity  of  the  operation.  A 
congested  estate,  according  to  the  Act,  is  an  estate  of  which  half  (in 
superficies)  consists  of  holdings  of  less  than  £$  rateable  value,  or  of 
mountain  or  bog-land,  or  of  which  not  less  than  a  quarter  is  held  in 
rundale  or  intermixed  plots  (rundale  meaning,  held  in  common  with 
rotation).  This  definition  sets  too  narrow  limits  to  the  term  congested. 
Out  of  200,000  uneconomic  holdings,  that  is,  holdings  insufficient  to 
support  a  family,  this  definition  would  only  include  50,000.  Section 
9,  sub-section  2,  lays  down  a  special  maximum  as  regards  the  price  to 
be  paid  for  congested  estates.  The  amount  paid  in  one  year  is  not  to 
exceed  by  more  than  one-tenth  the  price  probably  obtainable  on 
resale. 

is  Section  8. 


288  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

reserve  fund  the  advances  necessary  for  this  purpose.^ 
All  this  is  excellent  ;  but  here  too  the  practical  results  do 
not  correspond  to  the  hopes  that  were  formed.20 

One  last  word  about  this  Act.  Who  pays  for  it  ?  The 
Treasury  pledges  its  credit,  as  in  the  case  of  former  Acts. 
It  issues  guaranteed  land  stock  at  the  rate  of  5  million 
sterling  a  year,  bearing  interest  of  2|  per  cent,  and  secured, 
as  regards  both  its  redemption  and  its  interest,  on  the 
annuities  payable  by  the  tenant-purchasers.21  There 
remain  two  chief  series  of  expenses  to  be  provided  for  ; 
the  loss  resulting  on  the  issue  of  stock  below  par,22  and 
the  bonus  of  12  per  cent,  to  be  paid  to  the  landlords. 
To  meet  these  extra  expenses  a  surplus  is  required,  over 
and  above  the  loan.  The  first  mentioned  of  these  headings 
of  expenditure  is  secured  on  a  special  Irish  fund,23  and 
the  second  is  charged  on  the  imperial  budget  ;  but  England 
will  not  lose  on  the  transaction,  for  the  government 
undertook  to  effect,  and  is  already  effecting,  reductions 
and  expenses  to  an  equivalent  amount.  It  is  Ireland 
then  that,  finally  speaking,  will  pay  the  expenses  involved 

J9  Sections  12  and  43.  As  regards  the  Reserve  Fund  (see  earlier  in 
this  chapter).  The  funds  advanced  are  repaid  by  the  tenant  purchasers, 
together  with  the  purchase-price  of  their  holding.  In  this  matter  the 
Estates  Commissioners  enjoy  the  same  compulsory  rights  as  the 
Congested  Districts  Board. 

20  On  March  31st,  1906,  the  Estates  Commissioners  had  so  far  only 
bought  one  congested  estate.  They  had  bought  only  9,181  acres  of 
untenanted  land.  They  had  spent  only  £13,994  in  improvements 
before  resale.  (V.  the  Report  of  the  Estates  Commissioners  for  1903- 
1906). 

21  Sections  28,  etc.  The  Guarantee  Furid  formed  in  1891  is  reinforced 
from  several  Irish  sources,  notably  from  the  new  proportional  subsidy 
paid  to  Ireland  from  the  Treasury  since  1902,  and  called  the  Irish 
Development  Fund  (a  proportional  subsidy  equivalent  to  the  annual 
amount  voted  for  England  by  the  Education  Act  of  1902  for  educational 
purposes).  The  Guarantee  Fund  is  thus  raised  to  150  millions  sterling  : 
in  fact  the  security  of  the  lender  is  complete  (V.  Section  40).  At  the 
time  when  the  Act  was  being  drawn  up  an  idea  had  been  started  of 
entrusting  to  Irish  authorities  the  recovery  of  land-purchase  annuities, 
the  Exchequer  retaining,  as  a  set-off,  an  equal  amount  of  the  annual 
subsidies  due  to  Ireland.  This  would  have  been  a  beginning  of  financial 
Home  Rule.  The  idea  was  not  put  into  practice  ;  but  some^day  it 
will,  perhaps,  reappear. 

22  Their  average  price  of  issue  up  to   1908  was  89. 

23  The  Irish  Development  Fund. 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  289 

in  carrying  through  the  transfer  of  the  land,  including 
even  the  graceful  supplementary  present  that  England 
has  thought  right  to  offer  to  the  landlords.  England 
does  not  lose  a  farthing.  She  debits  to  the  account  of 
the  Sister  Isle  all  the  expenses  of  dismissing  the  landlords. 


IV. — The  Results  of  the  Act  of  1903. 

Judged  merely  by  appearances,  the  Act  of  1903  would 
seem  to  have  achieved  a  truly  remarkable  success.  From 
the  very  first,  purchase  agreements  and  applications  for 
advances  have  flowed  in.  From  November  1st,  1903  (the 
date  when  the  Act  came  into  force)  to  March  31st,  1906, 
the  number  of  agreements  for  the  direct  transfer  of  the 
land  from  landlord  to  tenant,  reached  no  less  a  figure 
than  85,638.!  At  this  rate  all  the  land  in  Ireland  would 
be  bought  within  ten  years.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
recognise  the  magnitude  of  this  great  step  towards  the 
general  transference  of  the  soil,  and  the  creation  of  peasant- 
proprietorship  in  Ireland.  If  then,  one  merely  considered 
the  area  transferred,  one  might  say  that  the  Act  of  1903 
has  been  a  complete  success.  But  we  must  examine  the 
conditions  under  which  this  transfer  is  carried  out. 

In  the  first  place,  however  great  the  number  of  purchase- 
agreements  concluded  and  laid  on  the  table  of  the  Estates 
Commissioners,  the  latter  can  only  sanction  them,  and 
consequently  advance  the  money,  at  a  very  slow  rate. 
Their  staff  is  not  equal  to  the  work — the  Treasury  cuts 
down  their  grants  to  the  narrowest  limits — and  we  may 
add  more  especially,  their  funds  are  not  sufficient  to  make 
the  advances  (as  the  Exchequer  only  issues  stock  to  the 
amount  of  5  millions  a  year).     On  March  31st,  1906,  they 

1  Report  of  the  Estates  Commissioners  for  the  period  1903-1906.  Add 
1,213  purchase  agreements  concerning  parcels  of  land  for  evicted 
tenants,  or  to  enlarge  holdings,  29  applications  for  advances  on 
demesnes  for  the  benefit  of  the  landlord,  and  18  agreements  of  various 
kinds.  General  total,  86,898  agreements.  The  advances  applied  for 
amount  in  all  to  £32,692,066. 

U 


2Ç)0 


MATERIAL   DECADENCE 


had  only  been  able  to  examine  half  the  purchase  agree- 
ments submitted  to  them.2  Hence,  and  not  without 
justification,  there  arise  complaints  and  recriminations 
from  both  landlords  and  tenants  alike. 

With  regard  to  the  future,  however,  the  following  con- 
siderations will  prove  more  serious.  The  Act  offers  means 
of  remedying  the  agrarian  evils  of  Ireland,  namely,  the 
excessive  sub-division  of  holdings  and  congestion. 
Under  this  heading,  as  we  have  already  remarked,  it  has 
so  far  produced  but  little  result.  In  practice  the  buying 
and  selling  operations  are  almost  always  carried  out  by 
direct  bargains  between  landlord  and  tenant.  The  Com- 
missioners themselves  make  few  purchases  :  they  only 
re-settle  and  improve  a  very  small  number  of  congested 
estates  ;  in  fact  they  seem  hardly  to  make  any  attempt 
at  effective  opposition  to  the  "immediate  sale  without 
preliminary  re-settlement  of  these  congested  estates, 
although  the  Act  would  seem  to  have  provided  them  with 
an  indirect  means  of  doing  so.3  Apparently,  then,  the 
organic  disease  of  Irish  land,  namely,  congestion,  is  not 
being  adequately  treated.  Indeed  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
the  Act  may  merely  perpetuate,  or  stereotype,  as  has 
been  said,  the  constitutional  evil  which,  under  the  new- 
regime  of  peasant  ownership^  will  soon  be  more  dangerous 
than  ever. 

2  34,804  out  of  86,898  (the  same  report).  We  may  add  that  the 
Liberal  Government  that  came  in  at  the  end  of  1905  seems  anxious 
to  afford  the  Estates  Commissioners  every  facility  for  their  work. 

3  They  could  refuse  to  recognise  the  lands  in  question  as  an  estate. 

4  The  check  which,  in  practice,  has  suspended  those  Provisions  of 
the  Act  dealing  with  congestion  and  the  evicted  tenants  was  partly 
due  to  the  "  instructions  "  given  to  the  Estates  Commissioners  by  the 
"  Castle,"  in  1904-1905,  under  the  Conservative  Government  ;  they 
have  restricted  and  prevented  the  results  aimed  at  by  the  framers  of 
the  bill.  V.  the  Commissioners'  own  words  on  this  question,  in  their 
report  for  1903-1906.  V.  also  the  severe  comments  of  Lord  Dunraven 
(a  Unionist)  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  of  November,  1905  (p.  790  to 
793).  The  Liberal  Government  on  coming  into  power  substituted  new 
instructions  for  those  of  the  Tories.  We  may  hope  that  it  will  prove 
determined  enough  to  overcome  the  difficulties  which  the  Estates 
Commissioners  still  encounter  in  the  text  of  the  Act,  in  the  parsimony 
of  the  British  Treasury,  and  indeed  in  the  ill-will  of  a  certain  number 
of  the  Irish  landlords. 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  291 

We  now  come  to  the  last  point.  The  purchase  prices 
agreed  to  by  the  tenant-buyers  are,  as  a  general  rule, 
extremely  high,  and  the  resulting  charge  upon  Irish 
agriculture  will  prove  not  only  very  heavy  but  even 
dangerous.  Hardly  had  the  Act  of  1903  been  passed 
when  the  farmers,  so  far  from  imitating  the  reserve  of 
the  landlords,  began  to  press  onward  and  push  forward 
their  applications  with  such  haste  as  to  cause  a  considerable 
proportionate  rise  in  the  price  of  land.  Politicians  and 
Nationalist  newspapers  made  every  endeavour  to  restrain 
the  peasants,  and  prevent  them  from  laying  too  heavy  a 
burden  on  their  future.  "Why,"  asked  even  the  more 
moderate  men,  "  should  the  price  of  land  rise  ?  Its  price 
ought  to  fall,  owing  to  the  new  advantages  offered  to  the 
landlords.  At  all  events  let  us  keep  to  the  average  under 
the  former  Acts,  say  seventeen  and  a  half  years  purchase 
for  first  term,  and  twenty-two  for  second  term  rents — ■ 
(which  works  out  to  the  same  amount)."  The  moderate 
men,  however,  were  soon  passed  by  in  the  Nationalist 
councils.  During  the  retaliatory  movement  which  ensued 
against  the  excessive  demands  of  the  landlords — some  of 
whom  were  demanding  25,  30,  or  even  up  to  40  years 
purchase — it  was  a  more  advanced  section  that  took  the 
lead. 5  "  Let  us  accept  the  same  average  as  formerly  " 
they  said.  "  But  what  is  that  average  ?"  "It  used  to 
be  seventeen  and  a  half  years  purchase  for  first  term 
rents,  that  is  to  say,  for  the  fair  rents  of  those  days. 
To-day  it  is  seventeen  and  a  half  times  the  existing  '  fair 
rent  ' — namely,  the  second  term  rent  ;  therefore,  for  the 
first  term  rents  this  would  make  it  20  per  cent,  less,  or 
say  14  years  purchase.  Even  at  that  price  the  landlords 
will  do  well,  for  their  estates  are  so  encumbered  with 
mortgages  as  to  absorb  the  bulk  of  their  income  ;  whereas 
once  these  debts  are  liquidated  they  will  be  able  to 
extricate  themselves  with  a  profit  in  hand  !"  But  whether 
moderate    or    advanced,    these    counsels    were    scarcely 

5  Messrs.  Dillon  and  Davitt,  etc.,  supported  by  the  Fresman's  Journal. 
The  moderates  were  led  by  Mr.  William  O'Brien. 


2Q2  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

listened  to  by  the  peasants,  blinded  by  desire  to  own  the 
land.  Indeed,  from  November  ist,  1903  to  March  31st, 
1906,  the  average  price  of  land  bought  and  sold  was 
22.9  times  its  rent  (22-9  years  purchase),  or  25  times,  if 
one  takes  into  account  the  supplementary  bonus  paid  to 
the  landlords.  This  represents  an  increase  of  nearly  40 
per  cent,  on  the  former  prices.6 

Now  it  is  evident  that  these  high  prices  will  be  a  heavy 
mortgage  on  future  generations.  The  annuities  are 
undoubtedly  calculated  at  a  reduced  rate,  but  they  will 
have  to  be  paid  for  sixty-eight  and  a  half  years  without 
remission  or  reduction.  Can  we  suppose  that,  between 
the  present  moment  and  that  far-off  date,  the  price  of 
agricultural  produce  will  not  become  lower,  owing  to 
increased  competition  ?  Can  one  hope  that  between  now 
and  then  no  crisis  will  occur  in  agriculture  or  in  cattle- 
breeding  ?  7  Yet  any  such  crisis  will  be  ruinous,  not  only 
for  the  tenant  purchasers ,  whose  initial  expenses  are  too 
heavy,  but  also  for  the  Irish  ratepayers,  who  guarantee 
the  payment  of  the  annuities,  and  in  fact  for  all  Ireland, 
which  is  responsible  for  this  debt  as  the  price  of  her  land. 

With  future  dangers  the  Act  of  1903  is  undoubtedly 
pregnant.  But  admitting  this  point,  can  it  nevertheless 
be  considered  certain  of  achieving  its  aim  ?  Will  it  effect 
the  general  and  final  transfer  of  land  from  landlord  to 
tenant  ?  It  is  very  doubtful.  Even  after  this  Act  has 
done  its  work  there  will  remain  a  considerable  number  of 


6  Report  of  the  Estates  Commissioners  for  1903- 1906.  The  average 
price  per  acre  during  the  five  years  preceding  the  Act  of  1903  was  £8  9s. 
(in  stock).  It  rose  to  ^13  4s.  (or  £15  with  the  bonus)  under  the  Act 
of  1903.  The  average  reduction  obtained  by  the  tenant-purchasers 
worked  out  at  25  per  cent.  There  was  also  another  reason  that  might 
contribute  to  explain  this  rise  in  prices.  Landlords  who  had  sold 
their  estates  under  the  former  Acts,  had  often  done  so  under  constraint, 
owing  to  their  embarrassments.  But  now  it  is  no  longer  the  most 
encumbered  estates  that  are  being  sold.  Those  who  are  selling  are 
not  compelled  to  do  so,  and  will  only  sell  at  a  good  price.  We  said, 
in  fact,  that  the  Act  was  conceived  with  the  idea  of  raising  purchase 
prices.  The  Tories  have  attained  their  end,  but  it  remains  to  be  seen 
whether  this  will  not  produce  a  grear.er  danger  in  the  future. 

7  See  above  our  remarks  as  to  the  crisis  which  is  already 
threatening  the  cattle-breeding  industry. 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  293 

landlords  who  will  refuse  to  sell  at  any  price,  and  a  still 
larger  number  who  will  refuse  to  sell  at  any  reasonable 
price.  The  truth  is  that  the  bonus  is  not  large  enough 
to  fill  the  gap  between  capital  bringing  in  the  required 
income  at  3  per  cent — which  is  what  the  landlords  want — 
and  the  purchase  price  that  would  only  do  so  at  5  per 
cent.,  which 'is  all  that  the  peasants  can  pay.  To  end 
the  deadlock  it  will  be  necessary  some  day  to  resort  to 
compulsory  purchase  ;  this  seems  extremely  probable. 
The  settlement  of  the  matter  will  doubtless  be  more  or 
less  delayed  and  by  this  temporising  policy  some  disorder 
and  violence  may,  perhaps,  be  provoked.  But  from  the 
ultimate  necessity  there  will  be  no  escape.  Landlordism 
will  not  be  abolished  without  recourse  to  legal  compulsion. 
However  this  may  be,  the  day  cannot  now  be  far  off 
when  landlordism  will  have  disappeared  and  peasant- 
proprietorship  will  be  definitely  established  in  Ireland. 
But  will  the  dawning  of  that  day  necessarily  mean  the 
ending  of  the  difficulty  ?  Not  even  then  will  it  be  ended. 
England,  though  the  traditional  enemy  of  peasant 
proprietorship,  has  yet  been  compelled  by  a  remarkable 
course  of  events  to  establish  it  in  Ireland  ;  to  create,  in 
fact,  this  very  system  in  which,  hitherto,  she  had  only 
been  able  to  perceive  disadvantages  both  real  and 
imaginary — although  indeed  it  is  now  said  that  she  is 
beginning  to  think  of  partially  introducing  it  into  England, 
as  a  means  of  checking  her  own  rural  depopulation.  In 
Ireland  it  is  undoubtedly  indispensable  to  an  agricultural 
revival  ;  but  is  it,  alone,  sufficient  for  this  purpose  ? 
Undoubtedly  not.  To  establish  peasant-proprietorship 
by  law  is  not  enough  ;  it  must  be  made  workable  ;  and, 
in  the  face  of  present-day  cut-throat  competition,  this 
result  is  harder  than  ever  to  achieve,  more  especially  when 
it  has  to  pay  a  ransom  out  of  the  profits  it  earns.  It  is 
not  enough  to  make  the  peasant  a  proprietor  ;  he  must 
be  placed,  by  means  of  agricultural  education  and  co- 
operation, in  a  position  to  succeed.  This  process,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  has  already  been  begun  in  Ireland.      He 


294  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

must  be  protected  against  himself  ;  against  running  into 
debt  and  against  sub-division  of  his  land  ;  and  steps  have 
been  taken  in  this  direction  by  the  Act  of  1903.  But 
until  a  remedy  has  been  found  for  congestion,  and  for  the 
excessive  preponderance  of  grazing  land  over  that  devoted 
to  tillage,  one  may  say  that  nothing  at  all  has  been 
accomplished.  And  I  cannot  see  that  the  Act,  as  applied, 
makes  sufficient  provision  for  these  difficulties.  Until 
cheap  transit  to  the  great  centres,  and  advances  of  capital 
at  a  low  rate  of  interest  secured  on  real  property  have 
been  supplied  to  the  farmer,  nothing  has  been  done.8 
Up  to  the  present  moment  these  points  have  been 
neglected.  Finally,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  there 
will  be  no  solution  of  the  land  problem  while  there  is  no 
industry  to  give  employment  in  Ireland.  Let  us  hasten 
to  add,  however,  that  when  all  is  said,  nothing  could  be 
more  fortunate  for  Ireland  than  the  establishment  of  small 
peasant  proprietorship.  It  will  bring  to  the  peasant,  who 
has  never  before  known  it,  that  feeling  which  is  the  true 
secret  of  success,  namely,  security  of  tenure.  It  will  turn 
him  into  a  Conservative,  as  indeed  he  would  long  ago 
have  been  if  only  he  had  had  anything  to  conserve.  9     It 

8  The  organisation  of  loans  on  landed  security  is  one  of  the  first 
needs  of  the  farming  interest  in  Ireland.  It  will  never  be  satisfactorily 
supplied  until  the  question  of  the  registration  of  titles  has  been  put 
in  order,  as  regards  both  the  past  and  the  future.  As  to  the 
question  of  the  high  cost  of  transit,  see  below.  Another  pressing  need 
is  the  following  : — "  commons  "  must  be  re-established  for  the  peasants  ; 
re-afforestation  and  the  preservation  of  the  existing  woods  must  be 
provided  for  (the  actual  lack  of  trees  is  nothing  less  than  a  calamity). 
Provision  must  also  be  made  for  public  necessities  in  various  districts, 
such  as  irrigation,  drainage,  roads  and  railways  to  open  up  untapped 
areas,  and  utilisation  of  peat-bogs.  There  being  no  communal 
authorities  (the  Commune  does  not  exist  in  Ireland)  these  functions 
ought  to  be  handed  over  to  the  County  Councils  (the  creation;  of 
Trustees  under  the  Act  of  1903,  Sections  4  and  20,  is  entirely  insufficient). 

9  Tacked  on  to  the  agrarian  problem  are  two  other  questions  of 
secondary  interest  for  us  Frenchmen  :  the  question  of  labourers'  cottages, 
and  the  question  of  town  tenants. 

Agricultural  labourers  who  are  neither  owners  nor  cultivators  are 
common  enough  in  Ireland.  The  exact  number  is  undiscoverable 
because  statistics  make  no  difference  between  them  and  the  tenants, 
whose  farms  being  too  small  to  pay,  supplement  their  profits  by  hiring 
themselves  as  labourers.  The  ultra-miserable  condition  of  these 
agricultural  labourers  without  hearth  or  home,  and,  more  especially, 


THE  LAND  QUESTION  295 

will  allow  agriculture  to  develop,  open  the  way  for 
economic  progress,  and,  perhaps,  at  length  bring  peace  to 
the  Land  of  Ireland. 

the  frightfully  insanitary  condition  of  the  hovels  in  which  they  are 
lodged  by  their  employers,  have,  on  several  occasions,  provoked 
legislative  intervention.  From  1883  to  1903  various  Acts  have 
empowered  the  Boards  of  Guardians  (now  the  District  Councils)  to  erect 
suitable  buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  agricultural  labourers. 
About  20,000  cottages  have  now  been  built,  almost  all  of  them  in 
Munster  or  Leinster.  They  are  let  to  the  labourers  at  an  average 
rent  of  iod.  to  is.  per  week.  According  to  Irish  opinion,  the  results 
obtained  are  very  inadequate  as  compared  with  what  remains  to  be 
done.  The  intricacy  of  the  law  and  the  ill-will  of  the  landlords  prevent 
any  thorough  development  of  the  system. 

The  town  tenants,  on  the  other  hand,  are  persons  who  have  rented 
houses  on  town  estates  belonging  to  landlords  (in  England  and  Ireland, 
of  course,  the  ownership  of  towns  and  villages,  like  that  of  the  land  in 
rural  districts  usually  belongs  to  great  landlords  ;  hence  the  difficulty 
of  erecting  new  buildings,  and  the  power  in  the  hands  of  the  landlords 
of  raising  their  rents  to  an  excessive  degree).  The  town  tenants  are 
asking  for  legislation  analogous  to  the  Gladstonian  legislation,  in  order 
to  protect  them  against  the  landlords  ;  also  for  a  better  means  of 
defending  their  rights  to  improvements  of  immovable  property,  and 
for  the  fixing  of  a  "  fair  rent."  The  connection  will  be  evident  between 
the  Town  Tenants'  question  and  that  of  the  housing  of  the  poor  in  the 
towns. 

Two  recent  Acts  (1906)  have,  to  a  certain  extent,  satisfied  the  claims 
of  the  agricultural  labourers  and  the  town  tenants. 


CHAPTER   III.— THE  WESTERN  PROBLEM 

The  Western  problem  is  merely  a  special  "  case  "  of  the 
land  question  ;  but  it  is  so  exceptional  a  case,  so  grave 
in  its  urgency  and  so  interesting  as  a  social  study,  that  it 
must  be  given  a  separate  place  in  our  examination. 

Killarney  and  its  Jakes,  Kenmare  and  its  river,  Glen- 
garriff  and  its  sweet-smelling  woods — who  is  there  that 
does  not  feel  their  magic  ?  Who  is  there  but  has  read 
a  hundred  times  of  those  beautiful  green  oases  which 
Nature,  in  some  stray  flight  of  her  fancy,  has  reserved  for 
this  Ultima  Thule  of  Ireland  ?  Privileged  ground  it  is, 
and  a  mysterious  kingdom  of  plants.  One  can  hardly 
imagine  in  our  climates  such  an  exuberance  of  vegetable 
life  ;  gia.  *  rhododendrons  forming  unbreachable,  crene- 
lated bas+  .is,  hollies  and  fuchsias  thirty  feet  high,  azaleas 
and  yuccas,  flowering  laurels,  impenetrable  tangles  of  every 
sort  of  evergreen,  above  which  stand  out  the  red  pine- 
trunks,  the  slim  birch  trees,  and  the  grave  splendour  of 
the  Irish  yews.  All  this  springs  from  a  thick  black  soil 
on  which  the  rich  refuse  of  the  forest  has  been  heaping 
itself,  for  no  one  knows  how  many  centuries  ;  fat  with 
the  decay  of  past,  and  big  with  the  promise  of  future 
flowerings.  It  is  a  kingdom  apart,  a  dreamland  ;  a 
section,  one  might  almost  say,  of  the  tropical  regions 
transplanted  and  set  down  under  the  pale  northern  sky  ; 
a  little  world  where  Nature,  in  our  colder  latitudes, 
seems  to  have  tried,  as  if  in  a  hot-house,  to  put  forth  all 
her  strength  and  luxuriance.  But  is  this  in  real  truth  the 
West  of  Ireland  ?  Unfortunately  not.  This  is  what  is 
shown  to  the  tourist.  Why  do  they  not  show  him  the 
rugged  Highlands  which  are  Ireland's  fortification  against 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  297 

the  Atlantic,  the  mountainous  desert  of  Connaught,  of 
Donegal  or  of  Kerry,  which  lies  along  the  frontiers  of  the 
great  ocean,  the  last  lands-end  of  Europe  ?  Side  by  side 
with  the  Ireland  which  is  shown,  one  must  see  this  Ireland 
which  is  not  shown.  One  must  travel  along  its  roads  and 
visit  its  inhabitants  in  order  to  understand  all  its 
desolation  and  sadness  ;  in  order  to  conceive  the  misery 
of  this  land,  and  of  the  men  who  dwell  upon  it. 

A  desert  of  rocks  and  bogs  ;  grey  rocks  turned  yellow 
by  a  kind  of  vegetable  leprosy  ;  bogs  or  black  marshes 
half  shrouded  in  fog,  stretching  out  of  sight  in  the  dips 
of  immense  and  unvarying  plateaux.  No  drainage  system, 
no  boundary  lines  ;  only  the  slow,  uncertain  waters 
sliding  sluggishly  along  a  country  that  offers  them  no 
outlet.  All  around  one,  at  every  step,  streams  trickle  by, 
heavy  with  earth,  gnawing,  reddening,  and  rotting  every- 
thing they  touch.  Similarly  there  is  no  road  system  ; 
the  ways  wind  at  haphazard  over  deserted  plateaux, 
regardless  alike  of  either  goal  or  direction.  Some  of  them 
run  perfectly  straight  and  lead  nowhere.  These  are  the 
roads  made  at  the  time  of  the  Great  Famine  as  pa  "  ■  of  the 

M 

relief  works.  There  are  no  trees  ;  indeed  sonic  of  the 
peasants  can  no  longer  remember  the  shape  of  a  tree. 
Bog  on  all  sides,  where  the  soil  is  level  ;  red  or  black 
bog  according  to  its  state  of  decomposition.  The  people 
cut  it  up  in  long  lines,  straight  and  parallel,  one  above 
the  other,  and  hollowed  out  in  stages  running  deeper  and 
deeper  into  the  ground.  By  means  of  these  trenches 
they  can  extract  the  little  squares  of  turf  which  are  then 
taken  and  laid  out  to  dry  in  the  daylight, — for  one  cannot 
say  in  the  sun  ! — whereupon  each  of  the  holes  fills  instantly 
wrth  black  water  which  oozes  out  of  the  soil  as  from  an 
over-soaked  sponge.  Sometimes  the  mountain-ridges 
curve  in  towards  one  another,  enclosing,  perhaps,  a 
picturesque  valley  or  else  some  great  amphitheatre  which 
suggests  an  extinct  crater  full  of  half-consumed  matter. 
Occasionally  from  the  top  of  a  hill  one  sees  a  white  line 
stretching  far  across  the  horizon.     It  is  the  Atlantic,    a 


298 


MATERIAL    DECADENCE 


desert  of  sea  without  sail  or  smoke.  Then  the  landscape 
fades  back  into  its  grey  monotony,  to  redden  again  by 
times  in  a  fierce  and  demoniac  name  that  strikes  along  the 
heather,  as  if  the  land  were  just  emerging  from  a  furnace. 
There  are  few  houses  and  few  villages  ;  and  there  is  no 
one  to  be  seen  on  the  roads.  This  solitude  is  peopled  only 
with  ruins  ;  ruins  of  those  ancient  monasteries  of  the 
seventh  or  eighth  centuries,  such  as  Lismore  or  Clonmac- 
noise,to  which  all  Europe  once  came  to  learn  lessons  of 
wisdom  :  ruins  of  abbeys  of  the  middle  ages,  or  of  castles 
once  inhabited  by  the  old  Anglo-Norman  families  :  modern 
ruins  of  cottages  which  were  but  lately  happy  homes 
The  ruins  seem  more  living  than  the  living  inhabitants 
of  this  ancient  country.  It  is  a  land  worn  out  and  half- 
dead,  in  which  nothing  seems  strong  enough  to  remain 
erect,  not  even  for  instance  this  old  bulging  wall  which 
is  crumbling  away  with  damp,  or  that  old  bridge  which 
is  stooping  beneath  its  burden  of  years.  There  is  but  one 
glimmer  of  comfort  :  the  chapels — the  little  churches  that 
stand  at  long  intervals  near  the  roadside,  and  whose  white 
walls,  rising  up  from  some  convenient  height,  and  seen 
from  afar,  focus  the  view  and  give  some  slight  touch  of 
life  to  this  landscape  of  death 


I. — The  Situation. 


It  is  not  nature  alone  which  in  these  districts  has  made 
the  problem  of  life  so  hard  ;  it  is  also  human  law,  and 
the  social  regime.  The  first  point  that  strikes  one 
throughout  the  West  of  Ireland,  is  the  twofold  character- 
istic of  a  general  depopulation  combined  here  and  there 
with  a  sporadic  overpopulation.  Wherever  the  soil 
permits  of  it,  there  you  may  see  vast  grazing  lands, 
empty  and  bare,  carved  out  into  quadrilaterals  and 
enclosed  within  great  dry  walls  through  whose  interstices 
the  daylight  penetrates  as  through  a  piece  of  lace-work. 
Nowhere  is  there  a  living  person  or  a  house  to  be  seen. 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  299 

Small  black  Kerry  cows,  and  Roscommon  sheep, — these 
are  the  sole  inhabitants  of  this  deserted  prairie.  But 
then,  pass  on  from  the  beaten  track  to  the  waste  lands 
by  the  coast  or  to  the  rocky  parts  of  the  mountain  or  to 
the  peat  bogs  on  the  plain.  Here  at  long  intervals  you 
will  see  masses  of  hovels  glued  tightly  against  each  other, 
very  low  and,  as  it  were,  half  sunk  into  the  ground,  with 
thatched  roofs  of  a  rounded  shape  like  the  outline  of  an 
over-turned  boat.  From  a  distance  one  would  say  that 
they  were  merely  rocks  covered  with  bushes,  a  heap  of 
molehills  shaped  in  alternate  hollows  and  hillocks  which 
stand  out  in  grey  relief  against  the  brown  back-ground  of 
the  horizon.  Some  of  them  are  mere  huts  built  with 
dried  mud.  Even  to-day  there  are  still  twenty  thousand 
of  these  mud  cabins  in  Ireland.  Many  of  the  cottages 
are  abandoned.  Is  this  due  to  voluntary  emigration  or 
to  eviction  ?  One  cannot  tell.  The  roof  has  fallen  in  ; 
only  the  two  side  walls  remain  standing  face  to  face  like 
two  large  pentagons  of  stone  pointing  skywards.  They 
might  be  taken  for  so  many  burnt  or  ruined  chapels.  It 
is  here  that  the  peasants  are  penned  together,  miserable 
and  unoccupied,  possessing  nothing  of  their  own,  as  one 
of  them  said  to  us  "  except  the  good  God,  the  rain  from 
the  sky,  and  the  light  of  day." 

Thus,  on  the  one  hand,  we  find  bare  and  deserted 
latifundia  ;  on  the  other  hand,  here  and  there  we  find 
human  beings  herded  into  what  might  be  called  rural 
slums  piled  together  on  waste  lands.  This  is  what  is 
known  throughout  Ireland,  in  a  strangely  ironical  phrase, 
as  a  "congested  district."  In  those  places  where  there 
is  land  fit  for  cultivation  there  are  no  inhabitants  ;  in 
those  places  where  there  are  inhabitants,  there  is  no  land 
or  not  enough  land.  Between  man  and  the  land  all  true 
balance  has  been  destroyed  by  the  existing  artificial  state 
of  things  ;  they  have  been,  so  to  speak,  divorced  from  one 
another  by  law.  And  now  they  remain  there  within 
sight  of  each  other,  the  land  idle  and  the  man  unemployed. 

The  next  problem  is  how  to  explain  this  agrarian  and 


300  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

social  paradox,  of  which  some  sporadic  examples  exist 
here  and  there  in  every  part  of  Ireland,  but  which  in  the 
West  constitutes  the  normal  and  habitual  condition  of 
affairs.1  We  must  consult  the  past.  Just  as  Ulster  has 
been  called  the  "  Scotland  of  Ireland,"  so  Connaught 
might  be  named  the  "  Ireland  of  Ireland,"  for  it  has 
always  been  the  historic  place  of  refuge  for  the  Celts  when 
they  were  driven  back  by  the  Saxon  invader,  and  for  the 
Catholics  fleeing  before  Cromwell's  celebrated  proscription  : 
"To  Hell  or  Connaught."  Its  agrarian  evolution  has 
followed  the  same  course  as  that  in  other  parts  of  the 
country,  but  it  has  been  more  deeply  marked  and  more 
tragic.  Only  sixty  years  ago  this  western  Ireland  was 
overflowing  with  inhabitants.  For  want  of  industries 
every  family  lived  on  the  produce  of  the  land,  and  the 
land  had  gradually  become  more  and  more  sub-divided. 
The  peasants  asked  nothing  of  it  but  that  it  should  give 
them  their  one  unvarying  food — the  potato  ;  until  the 
day  came  when  the  soil,  worn  out  by  this  constant  demand, 
finally  ceased  working  for  them  and  ended  by  producing 
nothing  at  all.  Nowhere  in  Ireland  were  the  two  curses 
of  the  country,  excessive  sub-division  of  land  and  over- 
population, more  acutely  felt  ;  and  in  no  part  of  the 
country  did  the  Great  Famine  strike  down  the  people  so 
cruelly.  Peel  thought  he  had  found  a  remedy  for  it  in 
permitting  the  free  importation  of  corn.  But  the  remedy 
proved  worse  than  the  disease.  "  This  means  the  ruin 
of  agriculture  !  "  cried  the  landlords,  and  proceeded  at 
once  to  that  wholesale  and  monstrous  operation  known  as 
the  Clearances  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  a  campaign  of  evictions 
en  masse,  which,  judged  by  the  results  that  still  remain, 
constituted,  I  think,  the  greatest  legalised  crime  that 
humanity  has  ever  accomplished  against  humanity.  They 
destroyed  these  populated  mole-hills,  in  order  to  convert 
into  pasture  land — into  poor  pasture  land — that  meagre 

1  An  analogous  state  of  things  exists  in  the  Western  Highlands  of 
Scotland  ;  but  the  Scotch  crofters  do  not  amount  to  15,000  in  number, 
whereas  the  inhabitants  of  the  Irish  congested  districts  are  at  least 
eight  times  as  numerous,  counting  the  heads  of  families  alone. 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  301 

soil  of  the  West,  just  as  they  have  elsewhere  converted 
better  land  into  the  rich  ranches  of  Leinster  and  Munster. 
Western  Ireland  was  turned  into  one  vast  cattle-ranch. 
Would  it  not  be  truth  to  say,  in  the  phrase  of  old  Sir 
Thomas  More,  that  in  this  deserted  country  "  the  beasts 
have  eaten  up  the  men  "  ? 

What  was  to  become  of  these  men,  women,  and 
children  whose  sustenance  was  considered  too  costly 
by  the  owners  of  the  soil  ?  They  emigrated.  Those  who 
could  do  so  left  the  country.  Since  1841,  Connaught  has 
lost  54  per  cent,  of  its  population.  As  for  those  who 
remained,  they  were  obliged  to  huddle  themselves 
miserably  together  on  insufficient  fragments  of  the  worst 
land  ;  on  those  portions  that  the  cattle  refused  !  And 
to  this  day,  though  greatly  reduced  in  numbers,  there  are 
still  in  the  West  of  Ireland, — in  Connaught,  Kerry  and 
Donegal, — more  than  half  a  million  inhabitants  who  are 
unable  to  make  a  living  on  the  remnants  of  land  left  to 
them  since  the  Clearances.  But  from  their  place  of  exile 
they  sometimes  look  down  the  valley  and  see  the  fields 
from  which  theii  fathers  were  driven,  and  the  ruined 
hearth-stone,  still  black  with  smoke,  of  the  house  in  which 
they  were  born.  Is  it  a  Paradise  Lost,  or  is  it  the 
Land  of  Promise  ?     Who  can  tell  ? 

A  few  figures  will  help  to  define  more  exactly  the 
existing  state  of  things.  In  the  Union  of  Westport,  in 
County  Mayo,  cattle-raising  occupies  150,935  acres  of  land, 
and  there  remain  only  15,000  acres  for  cultivation  by 
5,488  families  of  peasants.2  Taking  County  Mayo  as  a 
whole,  for  36,000  families  engaged  in  agriculture,  there 
are  only  93,680  acres  of  agricultural  land,  out  of  1,322,132, 
or  about  7  per  cent.  The  proportion  is  only  6.1  per  cent, 
in  the  Union  of  Oughterard,  and  falls  as  low  as  5.3  per 
cent,  in  that  of  Clifden  (County  Galway).3  Again,  to 
take  as  the  minimum  figure   of  what  the  English  call 

2  The  Problem  of  the  West  (Report  of  the  Special  Committee  of 
Westport  District  Council),  Dublin,   1902,  p.  4,  etc. 

3  Census  of  Ireland,  1901.  General  Report,  p.  169  and  373* 
Agricultural  Statistics,  1903,  p.  33. 


302  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

"  subsistence  allowance  "  a  rateable  valuation  (per  farm 
or  family)  of  £10.  In  the  Union  of  Westport,  out  of 
5,488  ratepayers,  4,844  are  rated  below  this  figure.  In 
the  Union  of  Castlebar,  3,760  out  of  4,383  ;  in  that  of 
Ballinrobe,  2,776  out  of  3,849  ;  in  that  of  Swinford, 
2,746  out  of  7,700  ;  in  that  of  Cahirciveen,  2,323  out  of 
2,838.  In  the  counties  of  Donegal  and  Mayo  half  the 
holdings  are  rated  at  less  than  £4  ;  and  the  same  figure 
holds  good  for  three-quarters  of  the  holdings  in  the  Unions 
of  Oughterard  and  Belmullet.4  To  these  considerations 
we  must  add  the  following  feature  :  There  are  no  rich 
men  in  the  Congested  Districts  ;  there  is  no  one  to  help 
or  to  maintain  the  unfortunate.  Beyond  a  few  officials, 
school-masters  and  constables,  the  village  shop-keepers, 
and  the  clergy,  who  live  the  life  of  the  people,  there  is  no 
one  to  be  seen  except  the  poor  and  the  destitute.  On 
every  hand  one  finds  misery. 


II. — Life  in  the  West. 

Let  us  pay  a  visit  to  one  of  these  village  "  colonies," 
that  lie  isolated  and  lost  in  a  desert  of  cattle-raising 
country.  A  new-looking  church,  a  school  with  its  black 
sign-board,  "  National  School,"  are  the  only  two  buildings 
that  seem  able  to  stand  erect  among  some  fifty  houses, 
or  hovels.  The  latter  are  all  built  on  one  pattern  :  namely, 
a  rectangle  of  low  whitewashed  walls  whose  surface  is 
streaked  with  mildew.  The  roof  is  composed  of  long 
plaits  of  straw  fixed  across  the  roof-beam  from  one  wall 
to  the  other,  and  fastened  to  each  other,  at  given  lengths, 
by  horizontal  strands.  Wherever  it  is  possible,  the  hovel 
is  built  on  a  rock  in  order  to  obtain  a  ready-made  floor, 
or  leant  against  a  rock  which,  for  the  sake  of  economy, 
is  used  as  one  of  its  walls.     Before  the  low  door  lies  the 

4  Census,  1901.  General  Report,  pp.  269,  341,  345,  355.  In  the  whole 
province  of  Connaught  there  are  109,359  holdings,  of  which  83,290  are 
below  £10  (76.  p.  185). 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  303 

inevitable  pool  of  liquid  manure,  a  permanent  breeding- 
ground  of  infection.  Within  the  cottage  it  is  almost  too 
dark  to  see  anything,  in  spite  of  the  turf-fire.  On  one 
side  is  a  recess  which  is  used  as  a  bedroom  ;  on  the  other, 
shut  off  by  a  railing-work  of  planks,  a  cow  chewing  the 
cud  or  a  black  pig  grunting.  There  are  better  cabins  than 
this  in  Ireland,  but  there  are  also  worse.  There  is,  for 
instance,  the  hovel  consisting  of  one  room  only,  without 
window  or  chimney,  such  as  one  sees  in  Connemara  or 
the  islands.  In  a  certain  parish  in  Roscommon  the 
curate  told  us  that,  out  of  1,100  houses,  there  are  900  in 
which  the  cattle  live  under  the  same  roof  as  their  owners. 
Near  the  hovel  lies  the  scrap  of  land,  consisting  of 
several  plots  inextricably  mixed  up  with  those  of  the 
neighbours.  What  miserable  poverty  seems  to  live  in 
these  wretched  little  squares  of  black  earth,  swollen  with 
water,  and,  as  it  were,  half  decomposed,  but  yet 
surrounded  with  a  rampart  of  stones  !  In  order  to  fight 
against  the  water,  trenches  about  a  yard  deep  are  dug, 
between  which  the  earth  is  piled  in  "lazy  beds" — ridges 
shaped  like  an  ass's  back,  and  laid  out  as  if  to  dry  in  the 
sun.  We  need  scarcely  say  that  there  is  no  room  for 
methodical  cultivation  :  famine  would  swoop  down  upon 
the  cultivator  before  he  was  half-way  through  with  it. 
The  soil  is  dug  by  spade  work.  For  manure,  on  farms 
which  are  not  too  far  from  the  coast,  there  is  seaweed. 
It  is  obvious  that  this  land  cannot  support  a  man.  If, 
according  to  economists,  we  define  rent  as  that  portion 
of  land-produce  which  remains  as  surplus  after  the  fair 
profit  of  the  cultivator,  it  is  evident  that  this  soil  produces 
no  rent.  Nevertheless,  owing  to  competition,  the  landlord 
succeeds  in  getting  rents  varying  from  5s.  to  £1  an  acre  ; 
in  fact,  often  higher  rents  in  the  bogs  of  Connaught  than 
in  the  best  lands  of  Ulster,  and  this  without  counting  the 
dues  for  turf-digging,  for  pasturing  cattle  on  neighbouring 
grazing  lands,  and  the  like.1    Land  laws  are  powerless  in 

1  On  the  coast  a  due  is  paid  to  the  landlord  for  the  right  of  harvesting 
seaweed  for  manure. 


304  MATERIAL   DFXADENCE 

these  cases.  Great  complicated  machines  such  as  they 
are,  cannot  be  brought  down  to  the  measure  of  the  small 
western  cottier  :  in  fact  they  have  hardly  touched  his 
case.2  For,  after  all,  what  advantage  can  he  derive  by 
becoming  owner,  or  even  by  having  his  rent  judicially 
fixed,  seeing  that,  as  he  well  knows,  he  will  never  be  able 
to  make  a  living  off  his  "  dwarf  "  holding  ?  His  holding 
is  not  big  enough  to  provide  a  living  for  him.  Rent,  in  his 
case,  is,  in  reality,  hire  for  a  dwelling  place,  not  for  a 
farm. 

How  do  these  "  congests  "  manage  to  live  ?  In  good 
years,  when  there  is  a  fair  supply  of  potatoes,  they  succeed 
in  making  ends  meet,  miserably  though  it  may  be.  The 
potato  is  even  nowadays  the  chief  staple  of  their  food. 
When  the  supply  is  exhausted,  they  fall  back  on  stirabout 
or  rather  maize-porridge.  Another  article  of  consumption 
is  tea,  which  they  make  into  a  kind  of  decoction,  as  indeed 
do  the  English  peasantry,  by  boiling  it  for  hours  ;  made 
in  this  way,  it  becomes  an  active  stimulant,  but  also,  so 
medical  men  say,  a  brain  poison  of  the  most  dangerous 
kind.  To  this  custom  some  persons  trace  the  alarming 
progress  of  insanity  in  the  Irish  country  districts.  About 
fifteen  years  ago,  an  enquiry  was  organised  and  officiai 
tables  of  expenditure  were  drawn  up,  relating  to  a  certain 
number  of  peasant  families  (averaging  five  persons).  Of 
these,  the  instance  which  showed  the  highest  expenditure 
gave  the  family  receipts  as  £41,  and  the  expenses  as 
£42.15.  That  which  gave  the  lowest  showed  receipts 
totalling  £8  3=.,  namely  :  by  sale  of  eggs,  £1  3s.  ; 
wages  for  s*ixty  days  labour,  £3  ;  herding  cattle,  £4.  The 
expenditure  amounted  to  £11  9s.,  namely  :  rent,  £1  ; 
rates  and  taxes,  2s.  ;  food,  £5  17s.  ;  clothing,  10s.  ; 
groceries,  £4.  Another  account  shows  receipts  of  £9  16s., 
of  which  £4  16s.  was  for  sale  of  calves,  pigs  and  sheep, 

2  Out  of  109,359  holdings  in  the  province  of  Connaught,  judicial 
rents  for  the  second  statutory  period  had  only  been  fixed  on  21,401 
holdings,  up  to  March  31st,  1904  ;  or  on  about  one-fifth  of  the  total 
number.  At  the  same  date  only  14,854  holdings  had  been  bought 
(Land  Commission  Report,   1903-4). 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  305 

£3  for  sale  of  fish,  and  £2  for  sale  of  eggs.  Expenditure, 
£10  19s.  ;  of  which  £1  10s.  was  for  rent,  2s.  for  rates  and 
taxes,  £4  for  food,  £3  for  clothing,  £1  6s.  for  tobacco,  and 
£1  is.  for  various  requirements. 3 

The  land  is  too  poor  and  too  much  sub-divided  to 
provide  them  with  proper  means  of  subsistence.  Some 
of  them  live  by  fishing  ;  others  hire  themselves  as 
labourers  when  they  can  find  work  ;  but  these  are  more 
or  less  insignificant  sources  of  revenue.  It  might  then 
very  naturally  be  asked  :  From  where  do  they  succeed  in 
drawing  their  surplus  income  ?  In  the  first  place — from 
America.  It  is  a  fine  trait  in  his  character  that  the  Irish 
emigrant  never  forgets  those  whom  he  has  left  in  the  old 
country  ;  and  that  girls  and  boys  alike — God  alone  knows 
the  struggles  through  which  they  pass — in  their  exile  will 
voluntarily  undergo  the  heaviest  privations  for  the  sake 
of  supporting  their  old  parents  at  home.  There  is  hardly 
a  family  in  the  West  of  Ireland  that  does  not  receive 
regular  remittances  from  America,  and  it  is  not  uncommon 
to  find  cases  of  their  being  sent,  within  a  year,  as  much 
as  a  hundred  dollars  from,  say,  two  girls  who  have  iound 
places  in  New  York  or  Boston.  The  following  are  some 
verified  statistics.  Every  year  the  Union  of  Clifden 
receives,  through  the  Clifden  Bank,  over  £10,000  sterling 
in  money  from  America,  in  fact  over  half  the  amount 
due  for  rents  from  the  3,300  families  in  the  district  ;4 
so  that  throughout  the  West  ol  Ireland  the  landlords' 
rents  are  often  merely  a  tax  levied  on  the  filial  piety  of 
child  emigrants  from  the  peasant  families  !  Another 
source  of  income  is  found  in  the  wages  of  those  who  go 
to  seek  work  in  Scotland  or  England  ;  those  who  over 
there  are  called  the  migratory  labourers.  It  is  no  new 
phenomenon,  this  annual  migration  of  labour  ;  indeed  its 
dangers  were  already  noted  by  the  Protestant   Bishop 

3  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Congested  Districts  Board  of  Ireland. 
Dublin,  1893,  P-  32>  etc. 

4  Royal  Commission  of  Inquiry  on  the  Land  Acts  and  Land  Purchase 
Acts  (Fry  Commission),  Dublin,  1898,  Vol.  IL,  p.  866,  evidence  of 
Canon  Lynskey,  Parish  Priest  of  Clifden. 

X 


306  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

Berkeley,  in  his  Querist,  written  in  1735.  At  the  end  of 
the  18th  century  one  might  see,  during  certain  periods  of 
the  year,  as  Lecky  tells  us,  the  roads  covered  with  gangs 
of  half-naked  peasants,  tramping  200  miles  to  work  at  the 
English  harvests,  under  the  management  of  agents, 
"  spalpeen  brokers,"  who  pocketed  the  greater  part  of 
their  wages,  and  worked  them  as  few  West  Indian  planters 
would  have  worked  their  negroes. 

In  1841  the  number  of  these  migratory  labourers  was 
returned  as  57,651.  At  the  present  day,  owing  to  the 
decrease  of  population,  officiai  statistics  estimate  their 
number  at  only  about  25,000.5  Three-quarters  of  them 
come  from  Connaught  ;  half  of  them  from  the  County  of 
Mayo  alone,  amounting,  in  fact,  to  over  one-third  of  the 
adult  male  inhabitants  of  the  county.  In  the  Union  of 
Swinford  they  amount  to  over  half  the  adult  male 
population.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  throughout  the 
summer  there  is  not  an  able-bodied  man  under  sixty 
years  of  age  to  be  found  in  the  island  of  Achill.  One 
western  peasant,  for  instance,  is  now  actually  in  the  course 
of  his  thirty-seventh  season  spent  in  England.  In  another 
place  a  girl  who  has  gone  every  summer  for  ten  years  to 
Lancashire  has  not  yet  learnt  a  word  of  English  there  ! 
During  six  months  they  live  for  nothing.  One  day  an 
honest  Scotch  farmer  saw  an  Irish  lad  in  his  employment 
fall  to  the  ground  through  weakness  ;  this  boy  had 
had  hardly  anything  to  eat  for  two  days,  all  his  earnings 
having  been  sent  straight  home  to  his  old  parents  in 
Ireland.6    Out  of  their  wages  of  from  14  to  30  shillings 

5  Report  on  Irish  Migratory  Labourers,  1906,  p.  7  (V.  this  annual 
report).  The  statistics  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and  of  the  Railway  and 
Navigation  Companies  give  higher  figures  (30,000  or  40,000  a  year). 
Of  course  this  phenomenon  of  migratory  labourers  is  not  confined  to 
Ireland  :  we  need  only  recall  the  "  Sachsengcinger  "  of  Germany  (about 
100,000),  the  Belgian  labourers  in  the  North  of  France  (about  half  that 
number),  the  Italian  workmen  who  seek  labour  in  France,  Austria, 
Switzerland,  etc. 

6  Report  on  Migratory  Labourers  for  1900.  The  report  for  1906  (p.  20) 
estimates  the  total  profit  brought  back  to  Ireland  at  £275,000.  V.  in 
the  appendix  of  the  report  of  1900,  the  extracts  from  a  parliamentary 
report  by  Mr.  Arthur  Wilson  Fox  on  the  life  of  the  Irish  Labourers  in 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  307 

a  week  (an  average  of  18  shillings)  they  sometimes  bring 
home  as  much  as  £10  or  £12,  and  their  average  profit 
amounts,  it  is  said,  to  £y  10s.  per  head. 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  this  provides  them  with 
a  fixed  and  assured  source  of  income.  An  increased  use 
of  agricdltural  machineiy  in  England  and  Scotland  would 
be  sufficient  to  lessen  the  demand  for  manual  labour. 
Even  now  a  bad  harvest  in  Great  Britain  means  that  the 
migratory  labourers  return  home  empty-handed.  And 
further,  one  single  failure  of  the  potato- crop  in  Ireland 
means  not  merely  extreme  poverty  but  a  condition  of 
actual  distress,  of  famine.  During  the  last  thirty  years 
there  have  been  in  Western  Ireland  five  or  six  years  of 
famine,  either  total  or  partial.  Not  many  months  ago 
one  might  have  seen  in  the  counties  of  Mayo  and  Galway 
a  whole  population  of  men  and  women  who  were  in  no 
wise  either  vicious  or  degraded,  literally  dying  of  hunger 
owing  to  the  almost  complete  failure  of  the  potato-crop, 
and  this  in  the  twentieth  century,  in  the  midst  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  within  fifteen  hours  of  London  ! 

Meetings  were  held  in  various  places,  in  order  to  ask,  not 
for  charity,  but  merely  that  certain  public  works  long 
promised  and  long  postponed,  should  now  be  carried  out 
in  order  to  provide  the  unfortunate  population  with  the 
means  of  living.  One  day,  at  Belmullet,  a  band  of  four 
or  five  hundred  peasants,  shouting  that  they  were  starving, 
and  nearly  all  holding  eviction  processes  in  their  hands, 
broke  in  on  a  Board  of  Guardians,  crying  :  "  Work  or 
Food  !  "  Otherwise  there  would  be  only  one  choice  left 
for  them,  namely,  emigration — that  is  the  slums  of  New 
York — or  else  the  workhouse,  that  is  to  say,  the  pauper's 
asylum,  until  they  should  be  ready  for  the  pauper's 
grave. 

England  and  in  Scotland.  The  details  are  heart-rending.  One  fact 
of  comparatively  recent  growth  is  the  increase  in  the  number  of  young 
girls  who  enter  on  this  annual  service.  Their  number  is  estimated  at 
10,000.  They  come  over  in  parties  under  the  guidance  of  a  "  gaffer  " 
who  is  usually  the  father  of  one  of  them. 


308  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 


III. — The  Remedy. 

For  these  periodical  famines  and  this  chronic  distress 
England  has  for  a  long  time  known  only  one  remedy  : 
emigration,  helped  and  subsidised  by  the  Government. 
Even  at  the  present  day,  how  sad  it  is  to  see  in  every 
village,  on  the  walls,  in  the  market  places,  or  in  the  post- 
offices,  those  great  coloured  posters,  maps  of  Queensland 
or  Manitoba,  with  appropriate  pictures  representing  the 
life  of  a  colonist  in  those  fortunate  lands  :  and  close  by 
them  another  series  of  placards  representing  figures  in 
uniform,  batteries  of  artillery,  infantry  drilling  under 
the  shade  of  Indian  palm  trees,  with  all  details  as 
regards  enlistment  and  the  rates  of  pay.  These  are 
the  regulation  official  advertisements  of  the  War 
Office  and  the  Colonial  Office.  These  are  the 
Anglo-Saxon  methods  of  purification.  Their  aim  is  to 
purge  Ireland  of  all  that  is  left  of  the  indigenous  race, 
of  "  the  natives." 

Yet  in  England  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
there  has  been  no  lack  of  public  men  who  have  denounced 
this  state  of  things  in  the  West  of  Ireland.  "  The  shame 
of  our  statesmen,"  as  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell  once  called  it, 
"  a  sin  against  the  divine  law  and  against  humanity." 
As  early  as  1880  General  Gordon,  who  died  soon  afterwards 
in  the  defence  of  Khartoum,  sounded  a  note  of  alarm  in 
the  Times.  "  I  must  say,  from  all  accounts  and  from 
my  own  observation,  that  the  state  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  in  these  parts  of  Ireland  is  worse  than  that 
of  any  other  people  in  the  world — let  alone  Europe.  I 
believe  that  these  people  are  made  as  we  are  ;  that  they 
are  patient  beyond  belief  ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  broken- 
spirited  and  desperate,  living  on  the  verge  of  starvation 
in  places  in  which  we  would  not  keep  our  cattle.  The 
Bulgarians,  Anatolians,  Chinese  and  Indians  are  better 
off  than  many  of  them  are.  I  am  not  well  off  ;  but  I 
would  offer  Lord  So-and-so,  or  his  agent,  £1,000  if  either 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  309 

of  them  would  live  one  week  in  these  poor  devils'  places 
and  feed  as  these  poor  people  do."1 

It  required  something  more  than  a  letter  of  General 
Gordon's  to  awaken  England.  It  required  the  agitation 
and  the  great  agrarian  crisis  of  1879  to  1890  ;  the  cry  of 
no-rent,  and  the  close  proximity  of  revolution  ;  the  feeling 
that  in  Western  Ireland  there  lies  an  ever-recurring 
danger  for  the  peace  of  Ireland.  Indeed  it  is  always 
the  home  of  agitation,  the  danger  zone  par  excellence. 
It  is  there  that  social  warfare  breaks  out  :  it  is  there  that 
the  Land  League  was  founded,  and  that  the  Plan  of 
Campaign  was  conceived  and  partly  executed.  When 
therefore,  in  1891,  the  country  was  emerging  from  the 
great  agrarian  struggle,  an  English  minister,  Mr.  Arthur 
Balfour,  then  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  endeavoured 
to  find  a  solution  for  the  land  problem  of  the 
West. 

Popular  opinion  had  long  fixed  upon  its  own  solution 
of  the  question  ;  a  solution  that  was  simple,  radical  and 
careless  of  many  practical  difficulties.  Seeing  that  it  is 
the  transaction  known  as  the  Clearances  which  has  done 
all  the  harm,  those  who  aim  at  remedying  matters  must 
proceed  to  reverse  the  operation.  One  must  restore  to 
cultivation  the  soil  required  for  cultivation,  and  give  back 
to  the  people  the  land  that  is  their  heritage.  The  land 
for  the  people — that  was  the  motto  of  the  Land  League. 
Between  the  area  of  the  land  and  the  number  of 
inhabitants  all  proportionate  balance  has  been  destroyed. 
It  must  be  re-established.  Some  of  the  owners  of  these 
waste  latifundia  must  be  expropriated,  and  the  territories 
cut  up  into  farms  of  moderate  size  for  the  peasants  to 
buy  back.  This  is  all  the  more  necessary  because  the 
land  in  the  West,  unlike  the  plains  of  Meath  or  Tipperary, 
is  not  particularly  suitable  for  cattle-raising.  Even  the 
best  districts  are  only  of  moderate  value,  very  apt  to 
deteriorate  and  return  to  their  original  state  of  nature. 
And  the  execution  of  this  scheme  would  be  all  the  more 

1  Quoted  in  Hansard,  March,  13th,   1901,  p.   1439. 


3io  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

easy  because,  owing  to  American  competition,2  cattle- 
breeding  in  the  West  is  no  longer  a  very  profitable  invest- 
ment. The  Clearances  were  not  merely  a  great  crime 
against  society  :  they  were,  all  things  considered,  an 
unprofitable  business  transaction  ;  and  now  the  better- 
advised  among  the  landlords  are  already  beginning  of 
their  own  accord  to  turn  their  unproductive  ranches  back 
into  ploughed  land.  What  we  want,  say  the  Nationalists, 
is  a  re-colonisation  of  Connaught,  a  large  redistribution  of 
the  soil,  a  vast  agrarian  re-settlement  of  the  West  of 
Ireland. 

This  scheme,  that  is  to  say,  the  radical  and  popular 
solution  of  the  question,  has  not  proved  too  alarming  for 
the  Conservative  Government,  in  principle,  subject, 
however,  to  the  reservation  that  they  will  only  apply  the 
principle  with  the  utmost  caution,  and  will  not  sanction 
State  intervention  as  a  substitute  for  the  natural  action 
of  economic  forces,  but  merely  as  a  stimulant.  These 
principles  they  first  admitted  in  1891.  It  was  then  that, 
on  Mr.  Balfour's  suggestion,  they  proceeded  to  deal  with 
the  social  and  economic  improvement  of  the  West.  Their 
first  step  was  to  form  an  autonomous  and  administrative 
body,  enjoying  large  powers  within  certain  strictly  defined 
limits,  namely,  the  Congested  Districts  Board. 3 

This  institution  is  a  great  Board  à  VA.  nglaise,  an  almost 
independent  commission  of  a  non-political  character.     It 

2  The  graziers  (entrepreneurs  of  cattle  -breeding, who  rent  their  grazing 
land  for  eleven  months  every  year  from  the  landlords  and  pasture 
their  cattle  on  them)  are  no  longer  successful  in  making  money.  About 
the  middle  of  the  19th  century  the  landlords  had  introduced  Scotchmen 
into  the  West  as  graziers.  But  these  settlers  have  now  disappeared, 
and  the  trade  is  usually  carried  on  by  local  buriness  men,  who  are  not 
unwilling  to  add  to  it  the  trade  of  usurer. 

3  Land  Act  of  1891,  Section  41  (54  and  55  Victoria,  ch.  48).  Many 
Acts  have  since  been  passed  modifying  the  original  Act. — V.  56  and  57 
Victoria,  ch.  35. — 57  and  58  Victoria,  ch.  50. — 59  and  60  Victoria,  ch. 
47. — 62  and  63  Victoria,  ch.  18. — 1  Edward  VII.,  ch.  3  and  ch.  34. — 
3  Edward  VII.,  ch.  sj. — 4  Edward  VIL,  ch.  34.  The  Board  has 
authority  over  only  a  certain  number  of  districts  which  are  strictly 
defined  and  scheduled  as  officially  Congested  Districts.  A  Congested 
District  is,  according  to  the  Act,  a  district  which  includes  at  least  20 
per  cent,  of  the  population  of  a  county,  and  in  whose  electoral  divisions 
the  average  rateable  valuation  is  less  than  30  shillings  per  inhabitant. 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  311 

includes  some  ten  honorary  members  nominated  by  the 
Government,  and  is  provided  for  executive  purposes  with 
a  whole  army  of  clerks  and  officials,  together  with  a 
budget  of  about  £80,000. 4  We  may  here,  perhaps, 
venture  to  express  the  opinion  that  from  a  general  point 
of  view  we  have  no  very  deep  admiration  for  these  great 
British  Boards.  They  have  the  advantage,  doubtless,  ot 
being  above  popular  influences,  but  they  do  not  possess 
the  advantage  of  freedom  from  Governmental  pressure. 
Their  tendency  is  to  become  irresponsible  meeting  places 
of  somewhat  mediocre  amateurs,  where  the  incompetence 
of  some  members  is  only  equalled  by  the  careless 
indifference  and  prejudices  of  others  ;  where  every  man 
is  pulling  the  wires  in  his  own  direction  ;  and,  consequently, 
where  business  is  done  without  order  and  method  and 
without  any  prearranged  plan  of  action.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  though  one  finds  in  the  C.  D.  B.  (as  it  is  named),  two 
eminent  men  to  represent  the  interests  of  the  peasants, 
two  priests,  Father  O'Hara,  Parish  Priest  of  Kiltimagh, 
and   Dr.    O'Donnell,    Bishop   of    Raphoe,    the   majority 

The  Congested  Districts,  according  to  the  Act  of  1891,  comprise  428 
"electoral  divisions,"  or  say,  3,411,000  acres  of  land,  out  of  the 
20,198,000  acres  in  Ireland  ;  say  one-sixth  of  the  whole  area  of  the 
country.  They  comprise  one-ninth  of  the  total  population  of  Ireland 
viz.,  about  half  a  million  inhabitants.  They  include  96,792  holdings 
of  the  rateable  valuation  of  £504,234  (say  about  £5  per  holding). 
If  one  draws  an  imaginary  line  from  Londonderry  to  Skibbereen, 
almost  all  the  land  to  the  west  of  this  line  (except  County  Clare)  is 
a  Congested  District.  This  legal  definition  of  the  Congested  Districts  is 
very  narrow  ana  complicated.  By  confusing  the  boundaries  it  creates 
a  whole  world  of  difficulties  and  of  administrative  red-tape  which 
retards  progress.  The  whole  province  of  Connaught,  the  whole  County 
of  Kerry,  and  the  whole  County  of  Donegal  ought  to  be  legally 
considered  as  Congested  Districts.  V.  on  all  the  matter  in  the  text, 
the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Congested  Districts  Board  (Thom  and  Co., 
Dublin).  Cf.  Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural,  Dublin,  1902,  p. 
258,  etc.,  published  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical 
Instruction.  V.  the  Parliamentary  discussions  on  the  subject,  especially 
Hansard,  March  13th,  1901  ;  March  14th,  1902;  March  14th,  1905  ; 
June  28th,  1906.  Cf.  Etienne  Béchaux.  La  Question  Agraire  en  Irlande, 
Paris,  1906,  p.  163,  etc. 

4  The  Board  is  presided  over  by  the  Chief  Secretary.  Its  ordinary 
budget  shows  receipts  of  £41,250,  consisting  of  the  annual  yield  of  a 
portion  of  the  Church  Fund  assigned  to  it  under  the  Act  of  1891  ; 
also  two  grants  from  the  imperial  budget  of  £25,000  and  £20,000  (the 
second  of  these  two  dates  from  1903L     In  all,  £86,250. 


3i2  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

consists  of  landlords  and  gentlemen  of  the  vague 
philanthropist  type,  honourable  men  undoubtedly,  but 
without  any  special  knowledge  of  the  country  ;  men  who 
in  practice  surrender  the  keys  of  the  place  to  a  few  Dublin 
officials.  However,  whether  for  good  or  bad,  the  new 
administration  has  now  been  at  work  for  fifteen  years. 
Let  us  enquire  what  it  has  accomplished  during  the 
course  of  those  fifteen  years. 

It  started  on  a  right  and  broad-minded  basis,  namely, 
that  the  problem  of  the  West  is  not  entirely  included 
within  the  land  question  or  the  "  more-land  question  :  " 
that  an  essential  element  in  the  work  consists  in  raising 
the  condition  of  the  peasant,  in  developing  his  means  of 
livelihood,  and  putting  him  in  a  position  to  make  a 
struggle  for  his  own  living.  To  this  theory  we  may  trace 
a  series  of  subsidiary  operations  of  various  kinds 
undertaken  by  the  Board  on  parallel  lines  with  their 
original  object  of  "  agrarian  re-settlement."  Some  of 
these  enterprises  they  started  both  intelligently  and 
successfully,  but  of  others,  unfortunately,  the  same  cannot 
be  said.  We  may  assert  at  once  that  they  have  not  been 
successful  in  their  attempts  to  improve  agriculture  and 
cattle-raising.  They  have  done  good  work  in  selling 
seeds  to  the  peasants  at  a  cheap  rate,  in  spreading  a 
knowledge  of  preventive  measures  against  diseases  in 
crops  or  beasts,  and  in  improving  by  selection  and 
importation  the  breed  of  cattle  and  sheep.  But  the 
Board  spends  large  sums  on  legions  of  agricultural 
instructors  to  whom  nobody  pays  any  attention,  on  model 
farms  which  are  studied  by  nobody,  and  on  experiments 
in  the  plantation  of  trees  which  have  proved  a  pitiable 
failure.  It  has  spent  £50,000  in  the  last  ten  years  for  the 
pleasure  of  introducing  the  English  hackney  into  Conne- 
mara  as  an  alternative  and  substitute  for  the  sturdy  and 
hardy  little  ponies  of  the  district.  What  a  splendid 
advantage  for  the  peasants,  whose  stable  is  often  no 
better  than  a  pig-stye,  to  have  at  their  disposal  some 
miles  off  a  500  guinea  stallion  !     Meanwhile,  however,  the 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  313 

Board  has  reorganised  the  sea-fisheries  which,  though 
nourishing  at  one  time,  had  lately  almost  disappeared 
from  the  west  coast  of  Ireland.  It  has  established 
harbours  and  ports,  and  curing  stations  ;  it  has  discovered 
markets,  and  built  and  fitted  out  boats  which  it  sells  on 
credit  to  crews  for  whom  it  has  previously  provided  a 
professional  training.  One  family,  in  Donegal,  a  short 
time  ago  was  able  within  two  years  to  repay  the  price  of 
a  boat  entirely  out  of  profits  made  in  fishing.  In  the 
islands  about  Arran,  near  Galway,  there  are  now  to  be 
found  fishermen  with  enough  enterprise  to  go  for  a  season's 
fishing  in  the  North  Sea. 5  Elsewhere,  with  the  assistance 
of  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society  and  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction,  it 
has  succeeded  in  multiplying  the  number  of  agricultural 
societies,  and  of  various  other  societies,  for  production, 
for  sale,  and  for  mutual  assurance  ;  as  also  of  rural  and 
Raiffeisen  banks.6  Indeed,  all  such  forms  of  co-operation 
have  attained  to  a  marvellous  development  among  these 
peasants  who  in  outward  appearance  are  so  far  behind 
the  times,  and  yet  in  reality  are  so  intelligent  and 
adaptable.  Finally,  the  Board  endeavours  to  develop 
throughout  the  West  those  domestic  and  village  industries 
which  form  a  living  element  in  the  country  districts  of 
Sweden  and  Russia,  and  the  preservation  or  establishment 
of  which  seems  more  and  more  in  all  countries  to  be  the 
only  possible  means  of  reorganising  rural  life.  Everyone 
knows  how  hard  it  is  to  vitalise  these  village  industries  ; 

5  Sea  Fisheries  had  at  one  time  been  very  flourishing  in  the  West  ; 
but  except  on  the  Coast  of  Kerry  and  of  Cork,  where  it  had  been  re- 
organised through  the  efforts  of  Father  Davis  and  the  Baroness  Burdett- 
Coutts,  this  industry  had  almost  disappeared.  Fishermen  from  the 
Isle  of  Man  or  from  the  Coasts  of  France  had  practically  succeeded  in 
monopolising  it.  The  Congested  Districts  Board,  stimulated  by  the 
energy  of  a  competent  man,  the  Rev.  W.  S.  Green,  has  done  much  to 
revive  sea-fishing  in  the  West.  The  results,  however,  affect  only  a 
small  number  of  families  living  near  the  coast.  As  a  trade  it  is  not 
very  lucrative.  The  sea  is  too  rough,  the  storms  too  frequent,  and 
the  railway  rates  too  high.  The  Board,  we  may  add,  ought  to  have 
shown  more  activity  in  pushing  forward  its  operations.  Under  this 
heading,  in  14  years  it  has  only  spent  ^184,464,  excluding  loans. 

6  See  later. 


3i4  MATERIAL   DFXADENCE 

how  impossible  it  is  to  preserve  them  against  the 
competition  of  machinery,  except  by  maintaining  in  their 
hand-made  work  a  high  artistic  value  and  a  superiority  of 
finish.  The  Board,  we  may  note,  creates  nothing  on  its 
own  account.  It  subsidises  establishments  that  are  in 
the  process  of  formation,  and  stimulates  the  forming  of 
co-operative  societies.  For  instance,  in  Donegal  it 
developed  the  homespun  weaving  industry,  introduced 
new  methods  of  manufacture,  tested  and  marked  the 
products,  and  organised  a  system  of  instruction  and 
technical  inspection.  To-day  Donegal  sells  £8,000  worth 
of  homespuns  per  annum,  and  emigration  has  entirely 
ceased  within  that  district.  Throughout  all  the  West,  by 
means  of  classes,  which  were  in  reality  workshops  paying 
their  women  employées,  it  developed  the  industry  of 
embroidery,  and  more  especially  that  of  lace  :  "  Irish 
lace,"  properly  so  called,  Carrickmacross  guipure,  Limerick 
or  Youghal  lace,  and  rosepoint  of  Inishmacsaint.  All  these 
beautiful  kinds  are  sold  by  a  charitable  institution  called 
the  Irish  Industries  Association  in  the  great  centres  of 
London  and  Paris. 7 

We  now  come  to  the  principal  object  of  the  Congested 
Districts  Board,  namely,  the  re-settlement  of  estates. 
The  problem  is  that  of  re-arranging  holdings  or  farms  in 

7  In  fourteen  years  the  Board  has  spent  ^52,000  on  the  rural  industries 
in  the  West.  All  this  subsidiary  work  of  the  Board  comes  in  collision 
with  a  fundamental  difficulty,  namely,  the  conservative  spirit  of  the 
individual,  his  distrust  of  new  methods,  and  the  absence  of  all  desire 
for  progress.  The  work  of  a  public  body  like  the  Board  is  usually 
above  the  level  of  the  individual,  I  mean  above  his  moral  level,  which 
is  the  true  factor  of  all  progress.  It  has  been  found  that  in  order  to 
reach  the  individual,  intermediaries  are  necessary.  Therefore,  during 
the  last  few  years  the  Board  has  encouraged  the  formation  of  parish 
committees  in  the  more  backward  districts  (composed  in  each  case  of 
the  parish  priest,  and  a  few  local  men  of  note).  The  members  of  these 
committees;  living  as  they  do  among  the  peasants  and  being  personally 
known  to  them,  try  to  make  a  beginning  by  getting  them  to  carry  on 
small  attempts  at  improvement  and  cleanliness  ;  such  as  the 
cor  structing  of  a  stable,  or  a  ditch  for  manure,  or  carrying  out  drainage 
work,  or  cleaning  their  houses  ;  and  afterwards  share  among  them  the 
money  prizes  distributed  by  the  Board.  This  system,  which  is  due 
to  the  initiative  of  Father  O'Hara,  does  a  very  great  deal  of  good, 
and  seems  to  be  capable  of  development.  There  are  at  this  moment 
(1906)  160  parish  committees  in  existence. 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  315 

suitable  dimensions  for  peasants  who  cannot  live  on  their 
tiny  farms,  or  "  dwarf  holdings."  The  method  of 
procedure  is  the  following.  In  a  district  we  find  an 
over-populated  estate  where  the  tenant  cannot  get  a 
living  owing  to  lack  of  room,  all  the  good  land  being 
reserved  for  cattle-raising.  The  Board  buys  this  estate,8 
and  redistributes  it.  It  examines  it  with  a  view  to 
alterations,  and  rearranges  the  share  of  each  peasant, 
enlarging  it  either  by  adding  a  piece  of  the  former  pasture 
land,  or  by  amalgamating  two  portions  into  one  and 
removing  one  of  the  tenants  to  a  new  farm  carved  out  of 
the  grazing  lands.  It  carries  out,  by  means  of  the 
peasants'  labour,  all  necessary  improvements  such  as 
drainage,  roads,  and  buildings  of  all  sorts.  Finally,  when 
everything  is  ready,  it  re-sells  to  each  peasant  his  new 
farm,  accepting  repayment  by  annuities  running  during  a 
term  of  years  as  under  the  ordinary  laws  of  land  purchase. 9 
The  operation  takes  time,  care,  and  equitable  treatment  ; 
and,  moreover,  tact  and  firmness  in  order  to  overcome 
the  resistance  of  the  peasants.  Their  resistance  is  by  no 
means    an    infrequent    occurrence,    and     has    recently 

8  By  means  of  advances  made  to  it  by  the  Land  Commission,  the 
Land  Act  of  1903  (Section  79)  regulates  the  new  procedure  and 
recognises  implicitly  the  vendor  landlord's  right  to  the  bonus  of  12  per 
cent,  payable  from  the  Treasury  (V.  above,  p.  273,  4). 

9  According  to  the  provisions  of  the  Land  Act  of  1903,  in  all  cases 
that  have  occurred  since  the  passing  of  that  Act.  The  Board  is  blamed 
for  making  the  farms  too  small.  It  is  said  that  often  they  are  not  big 
enough  to  feed  the  tenant  and  his  family  (V.  3rd  Report,  p.  9  ;  and 
nth  Report,  p.  17).  We  have  shown  that  the  Land  Act  of  1903 
empowered  the  Estates  Commissioners,  briefly  speaking,  to  carry  out 
the  very  same  work  of  re-settlement  throughout  all  Ireland,  including 
the  West  and  the  Congested  Districts,  and  that  hitherto  they  have 
not  done  much  towards  this  end.  The  work  is  of  a  delicate  nature 
and  could  undoubtedly  be  better  done  by  a  local  authority  or 
administrative  body  than  by  one  having  powers  over  the  whole  of 
Ireland.  For  what  concerns  the  Congested  Districts  see  Sections  72 
to  85  of  the  Land  Act  of  1903,  especially  Section  74,  which  fixed 
^1,250,000  (or  30  times  the  revenue  derived  by  the  Board  from  the 
Church  Fund)  as  the  maximum  value  of  the  vacant  lands  which  may 
be  bought  by  the  Board  and  not,  for  the  time  being,  be  resold  to  the 
tenants.  The  immediate  offect  of  the  Land  Act  of  1903  has  been  to 
raise  the  price  of  land,  more  in  the  West  than  elsewhere,  and  the 
eventual  consequences  of  buying  at  too  high  prices  will  be  more  serious 
in  the  West  than  anywhere  else. 


3i  6  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

necessitated  the  granting  of  compulsory  powers.10  But 
it  does  not  constitute  a  serious  difficulty,  and  does  not 
materially  differ  from  what  occurs  during  the  re-settling 
operations  now  being  carried  out  in  German  country 
districts  under  the  names  of  Arrondirung,  Regulierung  and 
Konsolidation.  If  legal  questions  did  not  always,  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  mean  legal  complications,  one  might 
wonder  why  each  landlord  in  the  West  has  not  carried 
out  this  operation  for  himself,  on  his  own  estate. 

Another  case.  It  may  happen  that  in  an  especially 
over-populated  locality  there  are  no  untenanted  lands  to 
hand  wherewith  to  enlarge  the  "  dwarf  "  holdings. 
Migration  is  then  resorted  to.  Some  of  the  peasants  in 
the  place  are  offered  new  farms,  created  out  of  lands 
bought,  perhaps,  some  twenty  or  thirty  miles  off.  Their 
own  land  is  taken  to  enlarge  that  of  their  neighbours,  and 
all  parties  benefit  by  the  transaction.  In  this  case  the 
chief  difficulty  lies  in  the  western  peasants'  unwillingness 
to  "  migrate."  They  love  their  little  corner  of  land  and 
their  own  neighbourhood  :  the  idea  of  moving  away 
from  home  alarms  them.  It  is  impossible  to  persuade 
the  old  people  to  "  migrate  ;  "  and  equally  impossible  to 
transplant  to  inland  farms  those  who  were  born  near  the 
sea.  In  many  cases  it  is  only  the  poorest  who  can  make 
up  their  minds  to  leave  home,  because  they  have  no  other 
alternative.11       We  may  add  that  this  unwillingness  is 

i°  Act  of  1901  (I  Edward  VII.,  ch.  34).  Cf.  the  Land  Act  of  1903, 
Section  82. 

y  We  must  add  that  the  Western  cottiers,  are  often  entirely 
uneducated.  Another  difficulty  of  the  migration  system  is  its  costliness. 
The  Board,  as  has  been  described,  must  arrange  and  complete  in  every 
respect  new  farms,  with  houses,  fences,  etc.  It  can  only  partly  recoup 
itself  by  means  of  fines  or  payments  of  £60,  £70,  or  £ioK  according  to 
the  case  in  question.  And  the  imposition  of  these  fines  is  severely 
criticised.  It  is  said  to  put  the  tenant  in  the  money-lender's  hands 
from  the  very  start.  All  this  explains  to  a  certain  extent  the  fact 
that  the  Board  has  made  but  very  slow  progress  in  its  migration  work. 
On  March  31st,  1905,  it  had  only  succeeded  in  "  migrating  "  207 
peasants,  at  the  average  cost  of  ^84  apiece  (V.  14th  Report,  p.  19, 
etc.).  We  must  recall  the  fact  that  Parnell  had  tried  to  push  forward 
migration  in  the  West  on  a  large  scale.  He  had  founded  a  special 
society  for  the  purpose,  but  it  was  entirely  unsuccessful. 


THE    WESTERN    PROBLEM  317 

diminishing  with  the  development  of  the  woik,  owing  to 
the  success  of  its  operations. 

The  success  is  indeed  remarkable.  Financially — 
excluding  cases  of  migration — the  work  shows  only  a  veiy 
small  deficit.12  As  for  the  peasants,  they  are  in  a  condition 
of  rejoicing.  No  more  rent  to  pay,  no  more  landlords,  no 
more  business  with  the  local  tyrants  called  agents, 
middlemen,  or  bailiffs  who  used  to  humiliate  and  terrorise 
these  unfortunates.  Instead  of  them  they  are  now  dealing 
with  men  who,  like  Mr.  Doran,  the  Board's  Inspector, 
wish  them  well,  meet  them  sympathetically,  and  try  to 
help  them  to  a  living.  "  One  can  hardly  understand  it  !  " 
they  say.  We  may  indeed  be  tempted  to  ask  why  the 
Board  progresses  so  slowly.  In  fifteen  years  (up  to  March 
31st,  1905)  it  has  bought  397,765  acres, upon  which  room 
will  be  found  for  16,000  to  17,000  tenants.  But  what 
does  this  achievement  amount  to,  when  one  considers 
that  Connaught  alone  contains  over  2,750,000  acres  of 
cultivable  land  and  over  110,000  families  of  peasants  ; 
and  when  one  remembers  that,  during  those  fifteen  years, 
emigration  has  swept  away  nearly  100,000  inhabitants 
from  that  province  of  Connaught  alone.  Does  not  the 
disproportion  only  seem  all  the  more  flagrant  between 
what  there  was  to  do  and  what  has  been  done  ?  The 
reply  made  is  that  the  experimental  phase  was  necessarily 
a  long  one,  because  the  problem  was  entirely  new.  It 
was  necessary  to  advance  prudently,  by  gradual  steps, 
in  order  to  avoid  making  mistakes  that  would  have 
endangered  the  future  of  the  work.  But  the  truth  is 
that,  although  the  Board  can  claim  the  credit  of  having 
recognised  the  true  solution  of  agrarian  congestion  in  the 
West  of  Ireland,  and  of  having  tested  that  solution  by 
practical  experiments,  nevertheless  it  has  not  had  the 
energy — or  the  freedom  of  action — to  apply  it  on  a  large 
scale.    It  has  allowed  secondary  considerations  to  usurp  the 

2  Average  deficit  :  5.5  per  cent,  of  the  purchase  price  of  the  land  (14th 
Report,  p.  14).  In  several  cases  the  resettling  of  estates  carried  out 
by  the  Board  has  resulted  in  a  profit. 


3i8  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

principal  place .  It  has  worked  after  the  manner  of  an  ama- 
teur or  a  dilettante.  It  has  marked  down  and  pegged  out 
the  right  way,  but  it  has  not  followed  it  with  determination. 
In  the  first  place,  to  carry  out  its  programme,  more 
money  would  be  necessary.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  remembered 
that  from  Imperial  sources  it  only  receives  £45,000, 
despite  the  huge  tribute  of  taxation  which  Connaught 
pays  to  the  Imperial  Exchequer.  But,  more  especially,  it 
ought  to  have  wider  powers.  It  ought  to  have  the  power 
of ''expropriation  in  the  interests  of  the  public,  for  which 
it  applied  officially  in  1894*3  but  to  which  the  Government 
has  always  refused  to  agree.  Without  this  power  it  can 
do  nothing.  It  may  require  certain  untenanted  lands  in 
a  district,  in  order  to  enlarge  the  holdings  on 
a  neighbouring  property.  The  owner  refuses  to  sell  them  ; 
consequently  the  whole  operation  is  blocked  ;  at  every 
turn  its  progress  is  checked  ;  and  we  need  hardly  observe 
that  speculation  is  duly  carried  on  at  its  expense. 
Nevertheless,  is  the  work  to  be  given  up  ?  The  required 
remedy  is  to  hand.  Ought  it  not  to  be  applied  once  and 
for  all  ?  Surely  it  is  evident  that  here  we  have  a  question 
which  concerns  not  merely  the  welfare,  more  or  less,  of 
500,000  to  600,000  peasants  in  the  West,  but  which  is  for 
them,  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Healy,  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  "  a 
question  of  life  or  death."  The  Board  must  make  haste 
unless  it  wishes  to  see  the  solution  of  the  problem  postponed 
to  that  day,  when,  in  the  words  of  Canon  Sheehan  in 
My  New  Curate,  the  English  will  really  begin  to  under- 
stand Irish  affairs  ;  namely,  the  day  of  judgment. J4 

13  V.  4th  Report,  p.  10. 

14  An  official  Commission  of  Enquiry  was  appointed  by  the  Liberal 
Government  in  July,  1906,  under  the  Chairmanship  of  Lord  Dudley, 
former  Viceroy  of  Ireland,  to  study  the  whole  problem  of  the  West 
and  the  work  done  by  the  Congested  Districts  Board. 

In  an  administrative  sense  the  powers  of  the  Congested  Districts 
Board  in  the  Congested  Districts  find  a  competitor  within  those  very 
same  districts  in  the  Estate  Commissioners,  and  also  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  (V.  below  p.  437).  Reorganisation  is  evidently  necessary 
in  order  to  unify  these  various  powers  and  thus  simplify  procedure. 
The  Nationalists  demand  the  introduction  of  an  elective  and  repre- 
sentative element  into  the  C.  D.  B.,  or  any  other  authority  that  may 
replace  it. 


CHAPTER  IV.— THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL 
SITUATION 

Ireland,  according  to  her  English  rulers,  is  not  so  poor 
as  is  generally  believed.  In  any  case,  they  say,  during 
the  last  half  century  she  has  made  material  advances  on 
the  road  to  prosperity.  They  will  tell  you  to  consult 
statistics.  The  deposits  and  money  balances  in  the 
great  banks,  which  in  1849  on^y  amounted  to  £7,469,675, 
on  December  31st,  1884,  reached  a  total  of  £30,627,000, 
and  on  December  31st,  1904,  a  total  of  £46,115,000.  The 
savings-bank  deposits,  which  amounted  in  1866  to  only 
£1,761,215,  had  risen  by  December  31st,  1884  to 
£4,321,000,  and  by  December  31st,  1904,  reached  the 
total  of  £12,302,000.  The  gross  receipts  of  the  railways 
amounted  to  £2,566,799  in  1874,  but  in  1904  to  £4,139,948. 
Surely,  they  conclude,  these  figures  are  convincing  ! 
Unfortunately  such  figures,  in  any  case,  are  merely 
relative,  and  can  only  supply  vague  indications  as  to  the 
economic  situation  of  the  country.  We  must,  therefore, 
make  a  closer  examination  of  the  question.1 

I. — Nature  and  History. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  not  be  thought  that  the 
land  of  Ireland  is  by  nature  unendowed  with  the  goods 

1  V.  on  the  economic  question  in  general,  E.  Wakefield,  An  Account 
of  Ireland,  Statistical  and  Political,  London,  1812.  Sir  R.  Kane, 
Industrial  Resources  of  Ireland,  1844.  T.  W.  Grimshaw,  Facts  and 
Figures  about  Ireland,  London  and  Dublin,  1893.  Report  of  the  Recess 
Committee,  1896  (new  edition,  1907).  Ireland,  Industrial  and 
Agricultural,  Dublin,  1902.  Th.  Lough,  England's  Wealth  Ireland's 
Poverty,  London.  1896.  Journal  of  the  Statistical  and  Social  Inquiry 
Society  of  Ireland,  Dublin  (Ponsonby).  Cf.  Cardinal  Perraud  op.  cit. 
I.,  451,  etc.  ;    IL,  passim. 


320  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

of  this  world,  and  predestined  to  misery  for  reasons 
either  geological  or  climatic.  Nature  did  not  intend  the 
island  to  be  exceptionally  poor  any  more  than  she  intended 
her  to  be  exceptionally  rich.  Situated  at  the  extreme 
West  of  Europe  and  endowed  with  splendid  natural 
harbours,  she  seems  marked  out  as  the  port  of  call  between 
the  old  world  and  the  new.  Her  soil  is  celebrated  for 
its  pasture  land.  If  well  cultivated,  it  is  fertile,  and 
produces  crops  of  various  kinds,  from  flax  to  tobacco. 
Ireland  has  no  mineral  wealth,  it  is  said,  no  coal,  and 
therefore  no  possibilities  for  industrial  development. 
This  is  a  mistake.  She  contains  209  million  tons  of 
coal,  which  might  easily  be  worked.  In  County  Antrim 
there  are  estimated  to  be  30  million  tons  of  iron  ore.2 
In  Ireland  we  find  also  copper  ore,  lead,  zinc,  excellent 
clays  for  bricks  and  pottery,  admirable  marble,3  granite, 
and  slate  quarries.  And  finally  she  possesses  immense 
reserves  of  power  stored  up  in  her  turf  bogs,  or  lying 
unused  in  her  rivers  and  waterfalls.  But  all  this, 
unfortunately,  is  as  though  it  did  not  exist.  Ireland  is 
not  a  country  without  value.  It  is  a  country  in  which 
there  are  genuine  possibilities  and  resources,  but  they 
are  possibilities  that  have  been  undeveloped,  and,  in 
some  cases,  unexplored,  down  to  our  own  days.  We 
must  begin  by  tracing  the  historical  fatality  to  which 
this  result  is  due. 

It  is  true  that  at  certain  periods  of  her  history  Ireland 
has  been  fairly  prosperous.  She  prospered,  for  instance, 
under  James  I.  and  Charles  I.  Her  agriculture  and 
commerce  were  then  in  a  flourishing  condition,  as  were 
also  her  woollen  and  linen  manufactures.  After  the 
appalling  cataclysm  of  the  Revolution  had  passed  away, 
she  gradually  began  to  recover.  So  well,  indeed,  did  she 
progress    that    England,    who    was    then    laying    the 

2  Figures  given  by  Professor  Hull  in  1886  (Eardley-Wilmot  Com- 
mittee), and  also  by  Sir  R.  Kane  in  his  work,  Industrial  Resources  of 
Ireland,  1844. 

3  Donegal  marbles,  black  Galway  marble,  and  green  Connemara 
marble,  the  latter  being  exceptionally  beautiful. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    321 

foundation  of  her  economic  supremacy,  became  uneasy, 
and  very  soon  denounced  Irish  competition  as  dangerous. 
At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  as  Froude  said, 
"  the  mere  rumour  of  a  rise  of  industry  in  Ireland  created 
a  panic  in  the  commercial  circles  in  England.  The 
commercial  leaders  were  possessed  of  a  terror  of  Irish 
rivalry  which  could  not  be  exorcised.  "4 

England  then  undertook,  with  a  selfishness  for  which 
the  dominant  mercantile  theories  of  that  day  form  but 
a  poor  excuse,  to  paralyse,  and  finally  to  destroy  the 
industry  and  the  commerce  of  Ireland  by  means  of 
prohibitory  measures.  Soon  after  his  coronation  William 
III.,  in  reply  to  a  petition  received  from  some  English 
weavers  and  supported  by  a  resolution  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  said  that  for  his  part  he  would  do  all  that  he 
could  to  discourage  the  woollen  manufacture  in  Ireland. 5 
As  early  as  1663  a  Navigation  Act,  confirmed  in  1670, 
and  completed  in  1696,  excluded  Ireland  from  colonial 
commerce.  In  1663  and  1669  the  English  market  was 
closed  to  Irish  cattle,  which  were  declared  "a  public  and 
common  nuisance,"  as  also  to  Irish  meat,  butter,  and 
like  products.  In  1699  the  Irish  were  forbidden  to  export 
woollen  goods,  the  importation  of  which  into  England 
had  been  restricted  from  1660  by  means  of  prohibitive 
duties.  The  exportation  of  raw  wool  being  already 
forbidden  (from  the  same  date)  there  remained  only  the 
resource  of  smuggling.  This  was  soon  organised  on  a 
large  scale,  and,  as  was  said  at  the  time,  turned  Munster 
and  Connaught  into  a  French  province.  But  even  this 
was  not  the  culminating  point.  Under  William  III.  and 
Anne,  the  cotton  industry  was  paralysed  by  an  English 

4  The  English  in  Ireland,  I.,  443,  446. 

5  "  The  English,"  says  Froude,  "  deliberately  deteimined  to  keep 
Ireland  poor  and  miserable,  as  the  readiest  means  to  prevent  it  being 
troublesome."  Concerning  the  history  of  the  economic  restrictions 
imposed  by  England  on  Ireland,  V.  the  classic  work  by  Hely 
Hutchinson,  Commercial  Restraints  of  Ireland  (1779),  Edition  of  1882. 
Cf.  an  excellent  monograph  by  Miss  A.  E.  Murray.  History  of  the 
Commercial  and  Financial  Relations  between  England  and  Ireland. 
London,  1903. 

Y 


322  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

import  duty  of  25  per  cent.  At  one  time  Ireland  had 
manufactured  sails  for  the  whole  English  navy.  This 
industry  was  killed  by  a  prohibitive  duty.  The 
manufacture  of  glass,  a  flourishing  industry  at  Birr,  was 
destroyed  by  orders  of  1736  and  1746  forbidding  the 
export  of  the  product.  A  similar  fate  overtook  the 
manufacture  of  beer,  malt,  hats,  gun-powder,  and  hard- 
ware. "One  by  one,"  says  a  great  Irishman,6  "each  of 
our  nascent  industries  was  either  strangled  in  its  birth 
or  handed  over  gagged  and  bound  to  the  jealous  custody 
of  rival  interests  in  England,  until  at  last  every  fountain 
of  wealth  was  hermetically  sealed." 

The  day  was  to  come  when  the  sources  of  Ireland's 
wealth  should  once  again  be  opened,  though  not  until  a 
whole  century  had  passed  by,  a  century  of  famine,  misery 
and  prostration,  during  which  Ireland  saw  the  entire 
strength  of  her  national  life  drained  away  by  absenteeism 
and  emigration,  while  her  finances  remained  a  prey  to  the 
recklessness  and  corruption  of  her  rulers. 7  The  demand 
of  the  40,000  Volunteers  raised  in  1778  was  not  merely 
for  the  political,  but  also  for  the  economic  liberation  of 
Ireland.  On  the  day  of  their  first  review  in  Dublin  they 
planted  before  the  statue  of  the  king  two  pieces  of 
artillery  bearing  the  following  inscription  : — Free  trade  or 

this A  few  months  later  all  the  commercial 

and  industrial  restrictions  devised  by  England  had  been 
abolished.  Economically  speaking,  Ireland  was  at  length 
mistress  in  her  own  house,  and  the  progress  achieved  by 
her  in  less  than  twenty  years  seems  little  short  of 
marvellous.  Grattan's  Parliament  provided  fresh  scope 
for  her  productive  power  by  introducing  protective  duties 
and  also  a  s}7stem  of  bounties  ;  although,  indeed,  the 
latter  were  far  from  counterbalancing  the  high  protective 
tariffs  of  England.       "  The  industrial  aspect  of  Ireland 

b  Lord  Dufferin,  Irish  Emigration  and  the  Tenure  of  Irish  Land, 
London,  1867,  p.  129. 

7  Lecky,  History  of  England  in  the  lith  Century,  II.,  420,  etc.  IV., 
365,  etc.,  on  the  scandals  of  Wood's  false  coinage  and  the  notorious 
pension  list. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     323 

rapidly  changed.  Ruined  factories  sprung  into  life  and 
new  ones  were  built.  The  manufacture  of  hats,  of  boots 
and  shoes,  of  candles  and  soap,  of  blankets  and  carpets, 
of  woollens,  of  printed  cottons  and  glass,  all  sprung  into 
importance,  while  the  linen  manufacture,  which  had 
decayed  during  the  American  war,  quickly  revived,  and 
in  ten  years  the  export  of  various  kinds  of  linen  doubled. 
.  .  .  The  population  of  the  towns  began  to  increase  .  .  . 
Dublin  became  a  home  of  arts  and  learning."8 

Between  1785  and  1799  the  exports  of  Ireland  to 
England  rose  from  1  million  to  5  or  6  million  pounds 
sterling,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  British  duties.  Meanwhile 
the  English  imports  into  Ireland,  though  free  of  all  duties, 
for  Ireland  had  never  attempted  to  reply  to  the  English 
protective  system  by  setting  up  an  Irish  tariff,  were 
reduced  from  2,\  millions  to  one  million  sterling. 9  "  There 
is  not  a  nation  on  the  face  of  the  habitable  globe,"  said 
Lord  Clare,  "  which  has  advanced  in  cultivation,  in 
agriculture,  in  manufactures,  with  the  same  rapidity  in 
the  same  period  as  Ireland." 

Then  came  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  and  the  Act  of  Union, 
which  abolished  commercial  bounties  in  Ireland,  and 
decreed  the  progressive  reduction  of  Anglo-Irish  customs 
duties.  A  few  years  later,  this  measure  resulted  in  a 
regime  of  the  amalgamation  of  the  customs  of  the  two 
countries.  From  that  day  onward  Ireland  sinks  rapidly 
downwards  on  the  slope  of  economic  decay.  The 
consumption  of  luxuries  decreases.  From  1800  to  1827, 
the  consumption  of  tobacco  was  reduced  by  37  per  cent, 
and  that  of  wine  by  47  per  cent.  In  the  year  1800,  the 
town  of  Dublin  possessed  91  woollen  factories  employing 
4,938  workmen  ;  in  1840  there  were  only  12  of  them 
left,  employing  682  men.     In  the  year  1800  she  possessed 

8  Miss  A.  E.  Murray,  op.  cit.,  passim. 

9  These  figures  are  taken  from  a  speech  of  Pitt's  (Russell,  Ireland 
and  the  Empire,  p.  4,  5).  From  1785  to  1800  the  consumption  of  tea 
increased  in  Ireland  by  84  per  cent.,  that  of  wine  by  74  per  cent., 
tobacco  by  ioo  per  cent,  and  coffee  by  600  per  cent.  ;  there  are  no 
figures  to  be  compared  to  these  during  the  same  period  in  England. 
(Spring  Rice  Commission  on  the  State  of  the  Irish  Poor,  1830). 


324  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

2,500  silk  looms  ;  only  250  remained  in  the  year  1840. 
Belfast,  in  1800,  included  within  her  population  27,000 
workmen  employed  in  the  cotton  trade  ;  in  1839  there 
were  only  12,000.  In  the  year  1800  there  were,  in  the 
County  of  Wicklow,  1,000  frames  for  flannel  ;  in  1841 
there  was  not  a  single  one.  In  1800  there  were  at  Roscrea 
900  persons  employed  in  the  woollen  trade  ;  in  1841 
there  was  not  a  single  workman  to  be  found.1  °  Throughout 
the  whole  century,  we  find  that  this  process  of  decay 
continues  and  increases,  being  augmented  firstly,  by  the 
Great  Famine  and  Emigration,  and  secondly,  by  Free 
Trade,  the  adoption  of  which  was,  unfortunately, 
contemporaneous  with  a  general  development  in  the 
means  of  transport  all  over  the  world.  England,  which 
under  the  protection  of  her  customs-barriers  had  during 
two  centuries  been  winning  her  way  to  industrial 
supremacy,  was  now  under  commercial  freedom  to  witness 
the  full  expansion  of  her  prosperity.  But  for  Ireland, 
Free  Trade,  on  the  contrary,  merely  accentuated  the 
process  of  decay.  She  was  not  in  a  position  to  struggle 
against  foreign  competition.  During  the  19th  Century 
Ireland  suffered  as  much  from  Free  Trade  and  from  the 
doctrines  of  the  Manchester  School,  as  she  had  suffered 
throughout  the  18th  Century  from  mercantilism  and 
commercial  restrictions. 


II. — The  Industrial  Situation. 

In  short,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  she  finds 
herself,  economically  speaking,  lower  than  ever  in  the 
scale.1  The  signs  of  her  decay  are  everywhere  apparent. 
Apparent  in  the  wasting  away  of  her  sources  of  wealth, 
and  in  the  loss  of  energy  among  her  people  ;   apparent  in 

10  Figures  taken  from  the  report  of  the  Spring -Rice  Commission 
above  mentioned.     Cf.  W.  J    Battersby,  The  Fall  and  Rise  of  Ireland 

(1S34). 

1  I  must  ask  the  reader  to  consider  my  remarks  in  these  pages 
conjointly  with  those  in  Chapter  III.  of  Part  III.,  in  order  to  obtain 
an  accurate  impression  of  the  present  economic  situation  in  Ireland. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     325 

the  deserted  condition  of  her  country  districts,  in  the 
miserable  poverty  of  her  cottages,  and  in  the  melancholy 
dilapidation  of  her  towns,  even  though  the  latter  do  not 
always — as  in  the  case  of  Galway — show  one  house  in 
ruins  out  of  every  two,  and  present  the  appearance  of  a 
town  recently  besieged  and  sacked.  Decadence  is  written 
large  in  her  ill-kept  streets,  which  house  a  population  of 
lazzaroni  degraded  by  a  life  of  far  niente  and  whiskey. 
The  signs  of  it  are  unmistakable  in  those  old  deserted 
palaces,  in  those  sordid  slums,2  the  lowest  dens  imagin- 
able of  vice  and  disease  ;  also  we  may  add  in  the  closing 
down  year  by  year  of  manufactures  ;3  and,  most  of  all, 
in  the  heart  of  the  people  who  for  over  half  a  century 
have  fled  from  a  land  where,  as  the  poet  Spenser  used  to 
say,  fate  has  willed  it  that  nothing  should  ever  succeed. 

A  country  cannot  live  without  producing  wealth. 
What  wealth  does  Ireland  produce  ?  How  does  Ireland 
live  ? 

Agriculture,  as  we  have  already  stated,  occupies, 
roughly  speaking,  64  per  cent,  of  the  population,  and 
produces  approximately  an  annual  revenue  of  forty 
millions  sterling. 

Ireland,  moreover,  has  two  or  three  industries  that  can 

2  V.  the  Liberties  in  Dublin  and  similar  quarters  in  such  towns  as 
Galway,  Omagh,  etc.  In  Dublin,  out  of  59,263  families  (averaging 
from  4  to  6  persons),  21,702  (36  per  cent.)  live  in  one-room  tenements 
(in  London  the  proportion  is  only  14.6  per  cent.,  in  Glasgow  26.1  per 
cent.,  in  Edinburgh  16.9  per  cent.).  The  proportion  is  10.6  per  cent, 
in  Cork,  15.8  per  cent,  in  Limerick  ;  in  Belfast  it  is  1  per  cent.  (Belfast 
is  a  relatively  modern  town).  Another  basis  of  calculation  is  the 
following  :  The  number  of  lodgings  consisting  of  one  room  and  occupied 
by  5  or  more  persons  is,  in  Dublin  8.69  per  cent.,  in  Glasgow  4.28  per 
cent.,  in  Edinburgh  1.80  per  cent.,  in  London  0.59  per  cent.  A  recent 
enquiry  shows  that  there  are  1,486  houses  in  Dublin  the  insanitary 
condition  of  which  ought  to  lead  to  their  immediate  demolition.  These 
1,486  houses  include  5,383  rooms  occupied  by  12,926  persons.  It  is 
hardly  surprising  that  the  death-rate  in  Dublin  reaches  the  terribly 
high  figure  of  25  per  1,000,  the  highest  of  any  town  in  Europe  (the 
return  for  London  is  17  per  1,000,  and  16.1  per  1,000  for  Paris  and 
New  York).     Thorn's  Official  Directory,  1903,  pp.  13  and  40. 

3  At  Dublin,  although  the  population  is  stationary,  the  following 
places  of  business  were  closed  in  the  year  1903  alone — two  metal 
foundries,  two  mineral  water  factories,  one  printing  business,  one 
tobacco  factory,  one  firm  of  pneumatic-tyre  makers,  one  firm  of  carriage 
builders,  two  makers  of  saddlery  and  harness,  etc. 


326  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

be  termed  active  and  even  prosperous.  These  are  the 
shipbuilding  yards  in  Belfast,  the  linen  manufacture  in 
Ulster,  and  the  great  breweries  and  distilleries  in  Dublin. 
Over  fifteen  thousand  men  are  regularly  employed  in  the 
ship-yards  of  Belfast,  but  few  or  none  of  them  are  Catho- 
lics, for  this  is  a  monopoly  of  the  Orangemen.  It  is  a 
flourishing  industry.  Belfast  was  able,  lately,  to  claim  the 
honour  of  having  launched  the  biggest  liner  in  the  world, 
the  Celtic.  The  linen  industry,  too,  in  Ulster,  gives 
employment  to  about  70,000  workmen,  including  28,000 
in  Belfast  alone,  and  makes  use  of  31,484  machine  looms. 
Fifteen  years  ago  it  was  said  to  represent  a  capital  of 
seventy  million  pounds. 4  Its  prosperity,  however,  is  on 
the  decline,  owing  to  the  great  decrease  of  flax  cultivation 
in  Ireland.  As  for  the  Irish  breweries  and  distilleries,  of 
which  the  largest  are  in  Dublin,  their  annual  production 
is  estimated  at  fourteen  million  gallons  of  whiskey,  and 
three  million  barrels  of  stout,  most  of  which  is  exported. 
They  probably  do  not  give  employment  to  more  than 
8,000  workmen.5 

Secondary  to  these  three  principal  industries,  we  may 
mention  a  certain  number  of  woollen  manufactures,6 
some  paper  factories,  the  poplin  industry,  once  famous 
but  now  little  more  than  a  tradition,  lace-making,  which 
is  not  developed  to  one-quarter  of  its  capabilities,  and 
finally  the  fisheries,  which  are  nowadays  greatly 
reduced.  Beyond  these  there  is  a  more  numerous 
remnant,  or,  as  one  might  say,  a  sediment  of  tiny  local 
industries.  They  have  no  market  outride  their  locality, 
and  no  high  standard  of  business.  They  merely  struggle 
along  on  the  brink  of  extinction,  and  it  cannot  be  said 
that  even  one  of  them  is  really  active.     They  are  simply 

4  Thorn's  Official  Directory,  1903,  p.  751.  Cf.  Grimshaw,  Facts  and 
Figures  about  Ireland,  I.,  35.  Cf.  Ireland  Agricultural  and  Industrial, 
p.  416. 

5  Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural,  p.  458,  499.  Cf.  Th.  Lough, 
England's  Wealth  Ireland's  Poverty,  p.  25,  26. 

6  According  to  the  last  statistics,  which  were  not  entirely  up  to  date, 
there  were  114,  giving  employment  to  3,323  workmen.  Thorn's  Official 
Directory,   1903,  p.  751.      Cf.  Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    327 

little  trade  associations,  houses  belonging  to  small  manu- 
facturers or  contractors,  with  here  and  there  a  mill  where 
American  corn  is  ground  ;  modest  undertakings  which 
by  nature  and  connection  are  rather  rural  than  urban. 

Of  the  industries  that  are  not  directly  productive,  two 
stand  out  as  worthy  of  special  mention — the  Banks  and 
the  Railway  Companies. 

The  Joint  Stock  Banks7  are  nine  in  number,  of  which  six 
are  authorised  to  issue  notes.  The  oldest  bank  and  the 
most  influential  is  the  "  Bank  of  Ireland,"  founded  in 
1783  ;  for  a  long  time,  indeed,  it  enjoyed  a  monopoly, 
and  to  this  day  it  is  the  only  bank  employed  by  the 
Treasury.  The  paid-up  capital  of  these  nine  banks 
amounts  in  all  to  the  moderate  total  of  £7,209,230.  They 
are  all  doing  well.  The  least  prosperous  pays  a  dividend 
of  5  per  cent.,  and  the  most  prosperous  a  dividend  of 
20  per  cent.  One  is  tempted  to  ask  how  they  arrive  at 
this  pitch  of  prosperity.  It  is  chiefly  due  to  the  large 
sums  received  as  deposits  on  which  no  interest,  or  merely 
a  nominal  interest,  is  claimed.  The  total  amount  of  these 
deposits  has  never,  since  1888,  fallen  below  30  millions 
sterling,  and  on  December  31st,  1904,  it  reached  the  high 
figure  of  £46,115,000.  The  existence  of  so  great  a  balance 
of  deposits  in  so  poor  a  country  is,  I  think,  due  to  the 
following  causes  :  The  Englishman,  owing  to  his  eco- 
nomic instincts,  only  leaves  his  money  at  the  bank  when 
he  wants  it  ready  to  hand.  But  the  Irishman,  like  the 
Frenchman,  has  an  innate  love  of  saving,  and  lays  aside 
every  possible  farthing.  Having  saved  it,  however,  he 
does  not  always  know  what  to  do  with  it.  Owing  to  the 
non-existence    of    industries    and    the    lack    of    personal 

7  V.  Thorn's  Official  Directory,,  .1903,  p.  765,  etc.  Banking  and 
Railway  Statistics  (bi-annual).  The  following  are  the  names  of  the 
Banks  and  the  dates  of  their  foundation  : — Bank  of  Ireland  (1783), 
Northern  Banking  Co.  (1824),  Hibernian  Bank  (1825),  Provincial  Bank 
(1825),  Belfast  Banking  Co.  (1827),  National  Bank  (1835),  Ulster  Bank 
(1836),  Royal  Bank  of  Ireland  (1836),  Munster  and  Leinster  Bank  (1885) 
The  two  latter  are  not  empowered  to  issue  notes  ;  nor  is  the  Hibernian 
Bank.  The  value  of  the  notes  issued  amounted  to  £6,781,000  in  1904. 
At  that  date,  the  capital  amount  of  British  Funds  the  dividends  on 
which  were  payable  at  the  Bank  of  Ireland,  was  35  millions  sterling. 


328  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

initiative,  he  lets  it  lie  at  the  bank.  And  now  at  this 
juncture  it  would  be  well  to  enquire  what  do  the  banks  do 
with  this  unemployed  money  which  has  cost  them  nothing 
to  obtain  ?  Do  they,  for  instance,  use  it  to  assist  local 
industries  or  commerce  ?  Most  certainly  not.  They 
send  it  to  England  to  be  invested  in  the  public  funds,  or 
in  English  and  Colonial  securities  and  enterprises.  By 
this  means  the  saving  instinct  of  the  Irishman  bears  no 
fruit  for  Ireland.  Its  produce  is  drained  away,  and  by 
a  supreme  irony  of  fate,  actually  goes  to  help  the  govern- 
ment of  the  oppressor.  Therein  lies  the  secret  of  the 
prosperity  oi  the  Irish  banks  ;  that  is  why  their  profits 
are  independent  of  Irish  industry  or  commerce,  and  why 
their  dividends  can  continue  to  increase  while  Ireland  is 
settling  deeper  and  deeper  into  decline. 

Ireland  then  is  exploited  by  her  banks  ;  and  in  a 
similar  manner  she  is  exploited  by  her  railways.8  Her 
small  network  of  lines,  comprising  only  3,270  miles  of 
railway,  was  constructed  by  private  companies  under  a 
system  of  concessions  corresponding  to  those  in  England. 
As  in  England,  the  State  originally  advanced  certain 
subsidies  to  the  companies  owning  concessions,  in  aid  of 
construction  (about  £5,000,000).  The  share  capital  of 
these  companies  now  amounts  to  £26,846,301,  and  their 
capital  indebtedness  to  £11,116,951.  The  cost  of  con- 
struction does  not  exceed  the  very  moderate  average  of 
£13,000  to  £15,000  per  mile,  although  in  England  the 
corresponding  figures  run  as  high  as  £60,000  to  £70,000. 
The  mileage  covered  is  small,  being  in  all  less  than  that 
of  one  of  the  great  English  companies,  and  still  less  as 
compared  with  those  of  France.  There  are  very  few 
double  lines.  9     The  rolling  stock  is  inadequate  both  in 

8  Thorn's  Official  Directory,  1903,  p.  758,  etc.  Banking  and  Railway 
Statistics.  Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural,  Dublin,  1902,  p.  ?■$> 
etc.  V.  the  frequent  discussions  on  this  point  in  the  House  of  Commons 
(notably  April  30th,  1901).  Two  Commissions  of  enquiry  are  at  present 
engaged  in  studying  the  railway  question  in  Ireland  and  the  systems 
of  canals  and  internal  navigation. 

9  In  the  year  1900  there  were  only  618  miles  of  double  lines  out  of 
a  total  of  3,003  miles  of  broad-gauge  railway. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     329 

quantity  and  in  quality.  The  passenger  service  is  ex- 
tremely bad,  and  the  arrangements  for  goods  traffic  even 
worse.  The  return  of  receipts  per  mile  is  very  low,  and 
shows  but  little  advance.10  The  rates,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  exceedingly  high,  and  the  working  expenses 
are  continually  on  the  increase.11  These  are  the  principal 
characteristics  of  the  system. 

Though  originally  very  numerous,  the  companies  have 
gradually  been  consolidated  or  amalgamated  until  their 
number  has  dwindled  down  to  six  ;  and  these  six  great 
companies  in  the  year  1900  were  working  2,531  miles  of 
Une,  or  about  five-sixths  of  the  whole.12  Side  by  side 
with  this  tendency  there  has  been  another  movement. 
The  Irish  railways  have  been  endeavouring  to  ally  them- 
selves more  and  more  closely  with  those  of  England,  or 
rather  the  English  companies  have  been  endeavouring  to 
bring  the  Irish  companies  more  and  more  within  the 
narrow  orbit  of  their  power,  either  by  means  of  agree- 
ments or  by  control  (buying  up  their  shares).  Thus  the 
Great  Southern  and  Western  of  Ireland  is  more  or  less 
officially  allied  to  the  English  Great  Western.  The  English 
London  and  North  Western  is  proprietor  of  the  Dundalk, 
Newry  and  Greenore  Railway,  and  has  a  large  interest  in 

10  The  total  gross  receipts  per  mile  in  1871  was  £1,143,  an(i  m  1900 
£i,i96,or  an  increase  of  4.6  per  cent,  in  30  years.  [Ireland,  Industrial 
and  Agricultural,  p.  71). 

11  Working  co-efficient  in  1874,  56  per  cent.  In  1903  it  was  61 
per  cent.     (Banking  and  Railway  Statistics,  p.  44). 

12  These  are  : — the  Great  Southern  and  Western  (730  miles)  ;  the 
Midland  Great  Western  (538  miles);  the  Great  Northern  (528  miles); 
the  Waterford,  Limerick  and  Western  (342  miles)  ;  the  Belfast  and 
Northern  Counties  (249  miles)  ;  and  the  Dublin,  Wicklow  and  Wexford 
(144  miles).  The  Waterford,  Limerick  and  Western  was  amalgamated 
in  1 901  with  the  Great  Southern  and  Western.  There  remain  therefore 
5  great  companies  ;  and  the  movement  towards  consolidation  is  still 
in  progress.  One  of  the  advantages  of  this  movement  is  to  reduce  the 
general  expenses  and  in  consequence  the  number  of  company-directors, 
who  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  importance 
of  the  lines.  For  3,000  miles  of  line,  there  are  still,  it  is  said,  135 
directors.  Yet  the  management  of  the  little  net-work  of  Irish  Railways 
is  not  so  very  important  a  matter.  Sir  G.  Findlay,  manager  of  the 
London  and  North  Western,  used  to  say  :  "  I  would  undertake  to  do 
the  whole  of  the  work  by  myself  in  four  days  a  week,  and  have  two 
left  for  fly-fishing." 


330  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

the  Dublin,  Wicklow  and  Wexford  Company.  The  English 
Midland  Railway  has  acquired  the  Belfast  and  Northern 
Counties  line.^  The  aim  of  the  English  companies  is 
obvious.  Ireland  provides  them  with  sources  of  traffic 
and  a  field  of  development.  No  less  obvious  is  the  harm 
done  to  Ireland  by  this  economic  invasion.  She  loses 
control  over  her  railways,  and  consequently  their  manage- 
ment aims  more  and  more  at  adapting  itself  to  English 
interests,  irrespective  of  those  needs  that  are  purely  Irish. 
These  facts  do  not  imply  that  the  Irish  Companies, 
financially  speaking,  are  in  an  unsound  condition.  As 
in  the  case  of  the  banks,  one  might  say  that  they  thrive 
on  the  poverty  of  the  land.  Their  average  dividend  is 
higher  than  that  of  the  English  Companies.^  How  are 
we  to  account  for  their  prosperity  ?  To  some  extent,  of 
course,  it  is  due  to  the  comparatively  small  amount  of 
capital  on  which  interest  is  paid  ;  but  more  especially  to 
their  excessive  rates.  There  is  little  or  no  competition 
between  the  various  lines,  and  a  war  of  rates  is  practically 
unknown.  There  might  and  ought  to  be  some  com- 
petition with  the  water-ways,  with  which  Ireland  has 
been  richly  endowed  by  Nature  ;  708  miles  of  canals 
(or  rivers  used  in  the  canal  system)  are  open  for  inland 
navigation.  True,  the  whole  system  was  initiated  without 
any  organised  method,  and  since  the  introduction  of  rail- 
ways inland  navigation  has  been  greatly  neglected. 
Except  for  the  Grand  Canal,  which  connects  Dublin  with 
the  Shannon,  the  Irish  canals  are  little  better  than  non- 
existent. Some  of  them  have  been  bought  up  by  the 
railways,  as  for  instance  the  Royal  Canal  by  the  Midland 
Great  Western.  Others  are  paralysed  by  the  regulations 
of  the  Board  of  Works.  Some  have  been  abandoned,  and 
are  now  half  silted  up.     In  short,  the  railways  are  absolute 

J3  It  may  be  mentioned  that  aa  analogous  state  of  affairs  has  resulted 
with  regard  to  the  shipping  lines  between  Ireland  and  England. 

x4  Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural,  p.  75.  Thorn's  Official 
Directory,  1903,  p.  738.  Out  of  13  millions  worth  of  ordinary  shares, 
there  are  from  2  to  2\  millions  which  pay  no  dividend,  and  there  are 
4  millions  that  pay  regularly  over  6  per  cent. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    331 

masters  of  their  rates.  Even  the  State  possesses  merely 
a  nominal  control  over  them  ;  and  any  appeal  to  the 
Railway  Commissioners,  who  are  the  recognised  authority 
with  regard  to  excessive  rates,  is  too  expensive  and  too 
complicated  for  practical  use.  The  result  is  that  the 
companies  raise  their  prices  as  high  as  possible.  "  Put 
on  traffic  what  traffic  will  bear."  The  average  tariff  per 
ton  of  goods,  according  to  Board  of  Trade  statistics  for 
1880,  was  5s.  8.35d.  in  England,  5s.  5-5od.  in  Scotland,  and 
6s.  n.27d.  in  Ireland.  In  the  year  1900  it  was  4s.  io.26d. 
in  England,  4s.  11. 64a.  in  Scotland,  and  6s.  7.qod.  in 
Ireland.  In  fact,  the  average  rate  for  the  year  1880  in 
Ireland  was  higher  than  that  in  England  by  21.83  Per 
cent.,  and  higher  than  the  Scotch  rate  by  27.13  per  cent.  ; 
while  in  the  year  1900  it  was  37.14  per  cent,  higher  than 
the  former,  and  33.97  per  cent,  above  the  latter.^  As 
for  the  average  passenger  rate,  it  varies  in  England  from 
7d.  to  8M.  ;  in  Scotland  from  7^-d.  to  iofd.  ;  in  Ireland 
from  is.  id.  to  is.  2d.  The  tariffs  for  smalls,  or  lesser 
packages,  are  prohibitive,  and  preclude  the  small  pro- 
ducer from  conveying  his  goods  diiectly  to  the  market. 
Heavy  traffic,  such  as  coal,  stones,  marble,  wood,  minerals, 
has  been  made  almost  impossible  by  the  high  rates.  In 
Galway  there  is  an  American  company  that  forwards 
marble  to  America  at  lower  rates  than  those  charged  for 
sending  it  to  places  within  Ireland  itself.  The  carriage 
of  cattle,  which  alone  represents  14  per  cent,  of  the  gross 
receipts  of  the  railways,  is  not  only  very  costly,  but  is 
so  negligently  carried  out  that  Ireland  loses  about  half  a 
million  sterling  every  year  owing  to  accidents,  delays  and 
the  like.1 6 

On  the  English  market,  in  spite  of  its  close  proximity, 

15  Ireland,  Agricultural  and  Industrial,  p.  80.  These  figures  only 
represent  a  mean  ;  they  are  independent  of  the  distance  that  each  ton 
was  conveyed.  (The  Irish  railways  give  no  statistics  as  regards  the 
tons  per  mile). 

Ib  For  those  who  wish  to  forward  goods  from  Dublin  to  Sligo,  it  is 
cheapest  to  send  them  by  sea  via  Glasgow.  Between  Magherafelt  and 
Belfast  a  service  of  carts  has  been  organised  (42  miles  at  8  shillings 
per  ton),  in  order  to  avoid  the  train  service. 


332  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

the  Irish  exporter  is  heavily  handicapped  by  the  rates  of 
transit.  Eggs  from  Normandy  pay,  in  carriage  to  London, 
16s.  8d.  per  ton  ;  eggs  from  Denmark  24s.,  and  eggs  from 
Galway  94s.  per  ton.  Butter  from  St.  Malo  or  Cherbourg 
pays  20S.  per  ton  for  its  carriage  to  London  (via  South- 
ampton) ;  butter  from  Antwerp  pays  22s.,  and  butter 
from  Tipper ary  35s.  per  ton.  But  even  these  figures  do 
not  fully  represent  the  existing  condition  of  affairs.  On 
his  own  market,  actually,  the  Irish  producer  is  at  a 
disadvantage,  owing  to  differential  or  through-rates  so 
arranged  as  to  play  into  the  hands  of  the  foregn  importer.1 7 
By  this  inverted  form  of  protection  all  the  productive 
capacity  of  Ireland  is  made  barren.  Here  we  have  a 
good  instance  of  the  tremendous  power  exercised  over  the 
economic  conditions  of  the  country  by  the  railway  com- 
panies, through  their  rates  ;  a  power  which  fully  justifies 
the  often  quoted  words  of  Captain  Tyler  :  "If  the  State 
does  not  control  the  railways,  the  railways  will  soon  con- 
trol the  State." 

This  power  has  been  both  misused  and  abused  by  the 
Irish  railways.  They  have  neglected,  even  when  they 
have  not  betrayed,  the  real  and  great  interests  of  the 
country.  Owing  to  them,  in  many  places  the  produce  of 
the  soil  is  condemned  to  remain  profitless  where  it  lies. 
"  Do  you  see  that  piece  of  water  ?  "  was  the  answer  given 
by  a  certain  peasant  to  the  English  economist,  Mr.  Shaw 
Lefevre,  who  during  a  tour  in  the  West  expressed  astonish- 
ment that  the  farmers  did  not  try  to  sell  their  fowl  on  the 
London  market  ;  "If  I  could  sell  that  water  in  Hell  I 
could  get  any  money  I  wanted  for  it  ;  but  the  job  is  to 
get  it  there."  Who  would  believe  that  Ireland  has  no 
railroad  to  Castlecomer,  the  centre  of  the  Leinster  coal 
fields,  which  contain,  it  is  said,  118  million  tons  of  an- 
thracite ?  Not  so  very  long  since  some  zinc  mines  were 
being  worked  at  Nenagh  ;  the  high  rates  of  the  Great 
Southern  and  Western  have  forced  them  to  close  down. 

l7  These  differential  tariffs  are  illegal.     But,  as  we  know  from  the 
experience  of  the  Uited  States,  they  are  very  hard  to  stop. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    333 

Recently  a  company  was  formed  in  Sligo  for  exporting 
compressed  turf — it  was  charged  us.  per  ton  for  carriage 
to  Dublin,  the  value  of  the  ton  in  Dublin  being  21s.  Open- 
ings spoilt,  agriculture  crushed,  industries  injured  or  bank- 
rupt, and  every  attempt  at  reviving  them  paralysed  from 
the  start  ;  these  are  the  items  in  the  ruin  of  Ireland,  foi 
which  the  railways  are  responsible.18 

Before  concluding  our  remarks  on  this  score  we  may 
note  two  final  touches  in  this  picture  of  a  nation's  de- 
cadence. In  the  first  place,  Ireland  lives  on  foreign  pro- 
ducts, although  she  can  produce — and  what  is  more, 
actually  does  produce  with  success — all  the  articles  of 
her  consumption.  The  army  and  the  governmental  in- 
stitutions are  kept  supplied  entirely  from  England  ;  and 
the  public,  whether  Unionist  or  Home  Rule  in  politics, 
follows  this  example,  and  imports  from  abroad  almost 
everything  that  it  buys,  except  whiskey.  The  peasant 
sells  his  pig  and  buys  American  ham.  Cobblers,  saddlers, 
and  binders  import  the  hides  required  from  England — 
those  same  hides  probably  that  come  from  the  Irish  cattle 
exported  by  the  cattle-breeders.  The  great  Nationalist 
newspaper,  the  Freeman,  is  printed  on  English  paper. 
Out  of  177  Irish  weeklies  there  are  only  6,  it  is  said,  which 
use  Irish  paper.  If  one  buys  picture  post-cards  in  Dublin 
one  finds  printed  on  them,  "  Designed  in  England  and 
printed  in  Prussia."  The  Irish  clergy,  who  are  extremely 
fond  of  building  churches,  import  marble  from  Carrara, 
and  statues  from  Munich  or  Italy.  In  1903  there  were 
landed  in  Dublin  from  abroad  18,069  tons  of  beer,  2,328 
tons  of  soap,  16,439  tons  of  slate,  17,539  tons  of  paper, 
16,178  tons  of  building  bricks,  564  tons  of  matches.  It 
has  been  calculated  that   Ireland  in  this  way  pays  an 

18  Popular  opinion  now  demands  the  State-purchase  or  Nationalisation 
of  these  railways.  This  solution,  which  has  been  more  than  once 
proposed  by  Commissions  of  enquiry,  would,  of  course,  be  liable  in 
Ireland  to  the  inconveniences  and  dangers  that  it  encounters  elsewhere. 
One  doubts  whether  the  question  can  even  be  considered  so  long  as 
the  Irish  Government  remains  in  the  hands  of  England.  It  would  be 
better,  one  imagines,  under  present  conditions,  to  organise  a  genuine 
and  working  method  of  State-control  over  the  companies. 


334  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

annual  tribute  amounting  to  about  20  million  pounds 
worth  of  goods  consumed. 

There  is  another  fact  which  must  be  noted  with  regard 
to  the  social  economy  of  Ireland.  During  the  last  half- 
century  the  distributing  classes  have  increased  in  greater 
proportion  than  the  producing  classes.  Between  the 
years  1841  and  1891,  according  to  the  comparison  in- 
stituted by  Mr. Charles  Booth,1 9  the  well-known  statistician, 
the  proportionate  number  of  persons  employed  in  agri- 
culture has  fallen  from  50.9  per  cent,  to  43.7  per  cent.  ; 
that  of  persons  employed  in  manufactures  and  building 
has  been  reduced  from  29.3  per  cent,  to  20.4  per  cent. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  proportionate  number  of  those 
employed  in  work  connected  with  transit  has  risen  from 
0.5  per  cent,  to  2.6  per  cent.,  which  is  a  good  sign  ;  but 
that  of  individuals  employed  in  commerce  or  dealing, 
middlemen,  in  fact,  has  risen  from  2.6  to  5.4  per  cent., 
which  does  not  mean  advance.  Finally,  the  proportion  of 
individuals  employed  in  public  services  or  in  liberal  pro- 
fessions has  risen  from  1.6  per  cent,  to  5.8  per  cent.,  and 
that  of  persons  in  domestic  service  from  9.4  per  cent,  to 
12.2  per  cent.  Thus  the  really  productive  class — that  of 
the  agricultural  and  industrial  workers — has  been  con- 
tinually on  the  decline  during  the  last  sixty  years  ;  and 
not  merely  in  an  absolute  sense,  but  even  relatively  to 
the  rapidly  sinking  population.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
liberal  professions  are  overcrowded.  It  is  said  that  there 
are  as  many  as  1,030  barristers  in  Ireland,  2,575  doctors 
in  practice,  and  1,637  solicitors.20  According  to  the  tables 
of  comparative  statistics  for  the  United  Kingdom,  the 
liberal  professions  in  England  amount  to  3.2  per  cent., 
in  Scotland  to  2.8  per  cent.,  and  in  Ireland  to  4.4  per  cent, 
of  the  population.21  Similarly,  we  rind  an  excessive  in- 
crease in  the  class  of  domestic  servants,   a  fact  which 

19  V.   Mr.    Charles   Booth's  work   as  reproduced   and   published   in 
Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural,  p.  64,  etc. 

20  Evidence  of  Mr.  Synott  before  the  Royal  Commission  on  University 
Education,  II.,  p.   174,  301. 

21  Financial  Relations  Commission  :    Evidence,  II.,  p.  109. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    335 

according  to  Mr.  Charles  Booth  can  only  be  explained  by 
the  low  rate  of  wages  ;  more  servants  are  engaged  when 
their  poverty  makes  it  economical  to  employ  them.  There 
is  also  an  excessive  increase  in  the  number  of  day  labourers 
and  general  labourers  ;  these  are  men  without  any  definite 
trade,  ready  for  anything,  and  good  for  nothing.  It  is 
the  existence  of  this  class  that  gives  ground  for  the  state- 
ment that  Ireland  is  gradually  tending  to  become  a 
reservoir  of  cheap  manual  labour  for  use  in  England. 
Lastly,  there  is  an  excessive  increase  in  the  numbers  of 
shop-keepers,  retail  dealers,  brokers,  and  middlemen  of  all 
sorts,  which  gives  rise  to  another  well-known  saying  that 
Ireland  is  approaching  the  condition  in  which  people  live 
"  by  taking  in  one  another's  washing."  Of  all  the  various 
classes  in  Ireland,  only  those  connected  with  the  distribu- 
tion of  wealth  are  increasing,  and  their  parasitic  earnings 
merely  lead  to  the  impoverishment  of  the  class  by  whom 
wealth  is  directly  produced. 


III. — Overtaxation.1 

Though  decadent  from  an  economic  point  of  view, 
one  might  suppose  that,  financially  at  least,  Ireland 
has  derived  some  profit  by  its  union  with  a  "  rich 
and  generous  partner."  But  the  truth  is  that  no  Shylock 
was  ever  so  greedily  anxious  to  extract  his  pound  of 
flesh  from  so  poor  a  debtor.  Ireland,  it  has  been  said, 
is  drained  dry  by  England  of  everything  except  water  ! 
Every  year  she  pays  to  her  British  suzerain,  without  profit 
or  return,  a  financial  tribute  that  might  be  estimated 
at  seven  millions  sterling  ;  nearly  four  millions  of  this 
sum  being  rent  due  to  absentee  landlords,  and    nearly 

1  V.  Financial  Relations  Commission  Report,  and  its  Evidence,  London 
and  Dublin,  1896.  Th.  Lough,  England's  Wealth  Ireland's  Poverty, 
London,  1 897.  V.  in  Hansard  the  report  of  many  debates  in  Parliament, 
especially  those  of  March  30th  and  April  2nd,  1897  ;  February  9th, 
1900;  March  22nd,  1900;  July  18th,  1901  ;  July  25th,  1902, 
May  1 8th,  1904;   May  1st,  1906;    March  26th,  1908. 


336  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

three   millions  representing  the   overtaxation  of   Ireland 
as  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  United  Kingdom.2 

During  those  years  of  liberty  that  preceded  the  Act 
of  Union,  the  finances  of  Ireland  were  in  a  good  condition. 
Until  1798  she  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  raise  two 
millions  a  year  by  taxation,  and  contributed  a  very 
slight  amount  to  the  military  expenses  of  England.  The 
French  war  of  1793  involved  her,  it  is  true,  in  considerable 
expenditure,  and  in  a  heavy  deficit,  to  which  were  added 
in  1798  the  charges  required  for  the  suppression  of  the 
Rebellion.  Nevertheless,  in  1800,  whilst  England  was 
paying  £3  os.  2d.  per  head  in  taxation,  and  had 
accumulated  a  debt  of  £42  10s.  per  inhabitant,  Ireland 
was  taxed  only  to  the  extent  of  12s.  id.,  and  was  indebted 
to  no  greater  extent  than  £5  14s.  per  inhabitant.  Her 
financial  situation  was  far  better  than  that  of  Great 
Britain. 

It  was  this  fact  which  prevented  the  authors  of  the 
Union,  Pitt  and  Castlereagh,  from  at  first  attempting 
anything  more  than  a  political  union  between  the  two 
kingdoms.  Even  in  the  year  1800  they  would  have 
liked  to  unite  and  assimilate  the  two  countries  financially 
by  giving  them  identity  of  fiscal  system,  a  single  budget, 
and  the  same  Treasury.  But  this  could  not  be  suggested 
in  the  face  of  the  wide  difference  of  financial  condition 
between  the  two  parties.  Accordingly,  Article  7  of  the 
Act  of  Union  3  was  only  able,  in  this  connection,  to  lay 

2  The  estimate  given  by  Mr.  Murrough  O'Brien,  Land  Commissioner, 
before  the  Financial  Relations  Commission,  i,  p.  219,  288.  Cf.  IL,  p. 
196.  Mi.  O'Brien  arrives  at  a  total  of  £3,431,716  by  taking  as  his  basis, 
for  rural  properties,  some  official  statistics  of  the  year  1S72,  and  then 
adding  to  them  a  similar  proportion  for  town  properties.  But  as  this 
figure  takes  no  account  either  of  the  growth  of  absenteeism  since  1872 
nor  of  superior  interests,  rent  charges,  etc.,  it  must  be  considered  as 
below  the  mark.  Prior,  in  1729,  estimated  the  rent  of  absentees, 
at  £627,999  out  of  a  total  of  2  millions.  Swift  likewise  estimated  it 
at  one-third  of  the  total  rent  of  Ireland.  In  this  connection  we  only 
take  count  of  money  remitted  to  England  at  a  dead  loss,  without  any 
set-off.  For  this  reason  we  do  not  mention  the  interest  on  mortgages 
belonging  to  Englishmen  (£630,000  according  to  Mr.  O'Brien),  nor  of 
purchase  annuities  for  land,  nor  of  repayments  to  the  Board  of  Works,  etc. 

3  V.  its  exact  '  wording  in  the  Financial  Relations  Commission, 
Evidence,  I.,  p.  330,  331. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     337 

down  a  programme  for  the  future.  It  enacted  that 
when  the  respective  debts  of  the  two  countries  should 
be  liquidated,  or  the  amount  of  these  debts  should  be  to 
each  other  in  the  proportion  of  2  to  15  (we  shall  presently 
show  the  true  nature  of  this  proportion),  Parliament 
should  have  the  right  to  fuse  into  one  the  two  systems  of 
finance  and  the  two  systems  of  taxation,  "subject  only 
to  such  particular  exemptions  or  abatements  in  Ireland, 
and  in  that  part  of  Great  Britain  called  Scotland,"  as 
circumstances  might  demand.  We  must  note  this 
exception,  which,  according  to  the  Nationalists, 
guarantees  the  right  of  Ireland  to  a  separate  system  of 
taxation.  We  should  note  also  the  danger  and  injustice 
of  this  provision,  which,  in  fact,  paved  the  way  for  forcing 
financial  union  upon  Ireland  as  soon  as  her  debt  should 
have  swelled  to  sufficient  dimensions  ;  that  is  to  say, 
as  soon  as  it  had  been  suitably  increased  for  her — as  if 
an  increase  of  debt  could  possibly  mean  an  increase  in 
the  wealth  of  the  country,  and  could  therefore  justify 
an  increase  of  taxation  !  For  immediate  purposes, 
Article  7  of  the  Act  of  Union  provided  that  the  two 
countries  should  retain  their  separate  budgets,  and  should 
each  remain  charged  with  their  respective  past  debts 
(future  debts  were  to  be  shared).  Each  party  was  to 
contribute  to  imperial  expenses  or  expenses  "  of  the 
United  Kingdom,"  according  to  a  proportion  which 
was  to  be  révisable  every  twenty  years.  This  proportion 
was  obtained  by  calculations  based  on  statistics  as  to 
external  commerce,  as  to  the  consumption  of  certain 
articles,  and  as  to  public  expenditure.  For  the  time 
being  it  was  fixed,  as  between  Ireland  and  England,  in 
the  ratio  of  2  to  15. 

This  Article  7  of  the  Act  of  Union  encountered  a 
vigorous  protest  from  the  Irish.  They  at  once  declared 
it  to  be  oppressive  ;  and  in  spite  of  Ireland's  relative 
prosperity  at  the  time,  they  denounced  this  rate  of 
sharing  imperial  expenses  (2  to  15)  as  ruinous  to  their 
country.     It  was  a  rate  based,  according  to  their  proofs, 

z 


338  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

upon  miscalculations  and  upon  unsustainable  inferences. 4 
Ireland,  declared  Grattan,  would  have  to  pay  the  price 
of  her  own  enslavement  ;  conquest  would  be  followed 
by  taxation  and  confiscation.  Others  recalled  the  cele- 
brated saying  of  Dr.  Johnson  to  an  Irish  member  : 
"  Make  no  union  with  us,  sir.  We  should  rob  you." 
Twenty  Irish  peers  protested  against  Lord  Castlereagh's 
calculation,  and  in  an  official  declaration  predicted 
bankruptcy  for  Ireland. 5 

And  bankruptcy  was,  in  fact,  to  be  its  result.  Hardly 
had  the  Union  been  voted  when,  by  a  refinement  of 
oppression,  the  Government  entered  as  a  debt  against 
Ireland  all  the  expenses  occasioned  by  the  Union  itself  ; 
a  million  and  a  half  sterling  for  buying  votes  in  its  favour 
in  the  Dublin  Parliament  ;  two  millions  and  a  half  for 
payments  to  partisans  of  the  Union,  and  so  on.  Then 
came  the  war  of  1800  to  1815  between  the  United  King- 
dom and  Napoleon,  involving  Ireland  (through  Article 
7  of  the  Act  of  Union)  in  excessive  expenditure  which 
could  not  be  covered  even  by  great  increases  in  taxation.6 
It  became  necessary  to  borrow  at  usurious  rates  of 
interest.  Ireland  fell  into  debt,  and  year  by  year  involved 
herself  in  worse  financial  difficulties.  By  1817  her  debt 
had  quadrupled,  as  compared  with  1800  ;  it  had  now 
reached  a  sum-total  of  112  millions  sterling,  though 
that  of  England  had  not  even  been  doubled  during  the 
same  period  (its  increase  being  from  489  to  737  millions).  In 
this  manner  the  two  debts,  once  so  widely  dispropor- 
tionate, were  now  brought  to  the  ratio  of  2  to  15.     The 

4  Evidence,  I.,  p.  328,  329.  Final  Report,  p.  142.  According  to  the 
comparisons  between  the  commercial  balances  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland,  the  proportion  ought  to  have  been  1  to  29.  Besides  which, 
Castlereagh,  when  comparing  tne  figures  of  public  expenditure,  had 
selected  one  year  of  peace  (1793),  and  seven  years  of  war  (1794-1800), 
which  was  unfair.  Moreover,  he  had  taken  no  account  in  his  calculation 
of  the  debt-charges  of  either  country. 

5  V.  this  document  in  Vol.  I.  of  the  Evidence,  p.  328,  329.  Cf.  Lecky, 
op.  cit.  VIII.,  p.  475. 

6  From  1800  to  18 16  the  average  amount  raised  by  taxation  in 
Ireland  was  ^4,865,262.  During  the  sixteen  years  before  the  Union 
the  average  sum  had  only  been  ^1,519,654.  (V.  Evidence,  I.,  p.  322 
and  334  ;    Final  Report,  p.  143). 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     339 

hypothesis  provided  for  in  Article  7  had  been  realised  ; 
and  in  this  same  year,  1817,  on  the  plea  of  saving  Ireland 
from  bankruptcy,  Parliament  decreed  a  financial  union 
between  the  two  countries,  amalgamated  their  budgets 
and  exchequers,  and  ordered  that  henceforth  all  the 
receipts  and  expenditure  of  the  United  Kingdom  should 
be  consolidated  into  one  single  fund  which  was  hence- 
forth to  be  known  as  the  Consolidated  Fund.  Thus  the 
finances  of  Ireland,  whose  individuality  had  been  pre- 
served though  not  respected  by  the  Act  of  Union,  were 
now  appropriated  by  the  Parliament  in  London.  Finan- 
cially Ireland  ceased  to  be  a  separate  state,  and  became 
an  integral  part  of  the  United  Kingdom,  except  for 
one  precarious  right  to  eventual  exemptions  and  abate- 
ments 7 

Here  we  have  the  financial  union  ;  but  it  was  not  yet 
to  be  turned  into  a  fiscal  union.  Ireland  was  then  so 
much  weakened  that  Parliament  could  not  at  once 
impose  upon  her  the  fiscal  regime  of  England.  It  was 
only  towards  the  middle  of  the  century  that  the  policy 
of  fiscal  equality  between  the  two  countries  materialised 
in  the  shape  of  increased  Irish  taxation,  and  in  the  general 
squeezing  of  Ireland.  Curious  to  relate,  this  process  was 
originated  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  future  champion  of 
Irish  liberties.  At  that  time  he  was  being  swept  forward 
on  the  great  current  of  opinion  that  was  bent  on  re- 
forming the  whole  system  of  English  taxation.  It  was 
proposed    to     abolish     duties     on     raw     materials    and 

7  The  operation  carried  out  in  18 17  was  unfair,  according  to  the  Irish, 
because  the  quadrupling  of  her  debt  since  the  year  1800  could  not 
possibly  make  Ireland  richer  or  more  able  to  bear  an  increased  taxation  ! 
Moreover,  they  say,  this  operation  was  in  formal  contradiction  of  the 
Act  of  Union.  According  to  the  Act  all  future  debts  were  to  be  treated 
in  common  ;  but  the  disproportionate  increase  of  the  Irish  debt  between 
1800  and  18 17  arose  purely  because  all  Irish  loans  were  considered  as 
going  to  swell  Irish  debts.  {Final  Report,  p.  64,  87).  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  Article  7  of  the  Act  of  Union  is  obscure  and  ambiguous.  It  is 
certain  that  the  possibility  of  an  increase  in  the  individual  debt  of 
Ireland  had  been  expressly  considered  by  Castlereagh.  This  danger 
had  been  clearly  pointed  out  by  Foster  and  Grattan.  (V.  the  question 
discussed  by  Mr.  Childers,  Final  Report,  p.  148.  Cf.  the  saying  of 
Grattan,  Evidence.  I.,  p.  339). 


340 


MATERIAL    DECADENCE 


necessaries,  and  in  their  stead  to  strike  at  accumulated 
wealth  by  means  of  the  income  tax,  while  simultaneously 
raising  the  duties  on  alcohol.  In  fact,  as  early  as  1842, 
Sir  Robert  Peel  had  raised  the  Irish  duties  on  tobacco 
and  stamps  to  the  same  level  as  those  in  England.  But 
he  had  refused  to  impose  the  income  tax  on  Ireland,  and 
in  1843  had  left  the  Irish  tax  on  whiskey  at  a  shilling  a 
gallon.  In  1853  Gladstone,  on  the  contrary,  extended 
the  income  tax  to  Ireland  at  the  rate  of  yd.  in  the  pound, 
justifying  himself  on  the  grounds  that  it  would  only  hit 
the  rich  (in  1855  it  was  raised  to  14  pence  and  in  1856  to 
16  pence).  In  1853  Gladstone  raised  the  duty  on  Irish 
whiskey  by  8d.  per  gallon,  alleging  as  his  excuse  that 
"  he  did  not  know  that  the  rights  of  man  demanded  that 
an  Irishman  should  get  drunk  more  cheaply  than  an 
Englishman."  In  1854  this  duty  was  again  raised  by 
8d  ;  in  1855,  by  2s.  2d.  ;  and  still  higher  in  1858 
and  i86o.s  Very  soon  the  fiscal  assimilation  of  the 
two  countries  was  completed,  except  that  Ireland 
remained  free  of  three  or  four  secondary  taxes.  9  Poverty- 
stricken  Ireland  was  henceforth  to  pay  taxes  at  the  same 
rate  as  rich  England.  She  was  to  be  subjected  to  all 
increases  in  taxation  that  England  might  deem  necessary 
for  the  development  of  the  Empire — for  the  war  in  Egypt 
and  for  the  war  in  South  Africa. 

The  following  figures  enable  one  to  grasp  the  financial 
results  of  the  Union.  In  1800,  Great  Britain  (England, 
Scotland,  and  Wales)  had  io|-  million  inhabitants,  each 
of  whom  (taking  the  average)  paid  £3  os.  2d.  to  the 
Exchequer  ;  in  1892-93  (the  year  taken  as  a  basis  of 
comparison  by  the  Financial  Relations  Commission)  her 

8  As  a  set-off  Gladstone  an  lulled  a  capital  debt  of  about  4  millions 
sterling,  which  had  been  contracted  for  the  relief  of  the  poor  during 
the  Great  Famine.  But  the  Income  Tax  alone  has  since  then  raised 
from  Ireland  five  times  the  amount  of  this  sum  wiped  out  by  Gladstone. 
(Cf.  Final  Report,  p.  9,  11). 

9  Ireland  is  still  free  from  the  Land  Tax  (which,  as  is  well  known, 
is  not  so  important  in  England  as  in  France),  from  the  inhabited  house 
duty,  from  railway  travelling  taxes,  and  from  taxes  on  horses  and 
carriages  and  armorial  bearings. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     341 

population  had  risen  to  33^  million  inhabitants,  each  of 
whom  paid  £2  4s.  iod.  Ireland  in  1800  had  over  5 
million  inhabitants,  each  of  whom  paid  12s.  id.  in 
taxation.  In  1892-93  she  had  only  4,638,000  inhabitants, 
each  of  whom  paid  £1  8s.  iod.  During  the  19th  Century, 
therefore,  Great  Britain  has  trebled  her  population  and 
reduced  her  taxation  per  head  by  25  per  cent.  Ireland 
has  seen  her  population  diminished  by  14  per  cent,  and 
her  taxation  per  inhabitant  increased  by  140  per  cent.10 
Moreover,  the  rate  of  taxation  does  not  present  a  full 
view  of  the  case.  Being  indirect,  it  is  disproportionate. 
By  laying  equal  duties  on  all,  it  imposes  a  heavier 
sacrifice  on  the  poor  than  on  the  rich.  Now,  whereas 
England  draws  half  her  revenue  from  direct  taxation 
and  half  from  indirect,  Ireland  pays  only  one  quarter  of 
her  contribution  in  direct,  and  three-quarters  in  indirect 
taxation.11 

All  these  figures,  an  Irish  Unionist  will  tell  you,  do 
not  prove  that  Ireland  is  unjustly  taxed  !  In  all  countries 
there  was  an  increase  of  taxation  during  the  last  century. 
Irish  taxation  per  head  remains  lower  than  it  is  in 
England.  Besides,  both  taxes  and  duties  are  the  same 
for  both  countries  What  could  be  more  equitable  ? 
Can  justice  on  one  side  of  St.  George's  Channel  become 
injustice  on  the  other  ?  Ireland  complains  of  being 
unfairly  taxed  on  articles  of  consumption.  But  these 
taxes  are  not  compulsory  for  anyone.  The  Irish  can 
avoid  paying  them  by  drinking  less  whiskey  ' 

10  Financial  Relations  Commission,  Evidence,  I.,  325  and  352.  Mr. 
Th.  Lough,  M.P..  after  making  a  comparison  between  the  average  of 
the  first  sixteen  years  of  this  cen+ury  and  that  of  the  year  1892-93, 
comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Irish  tax-payer  has  seen  his  quota 
doubled,  whereas  the  English  tax-payer  has  seen  his  halved.  [England's 
Wealth  Ireland's  Poverty,  v.  56,  57).  The  figures  would  be  still  more 
striking  if  one  were  to  compare  the  year  1792  with  the  year  1892.  We 
may  add  that  since  1892-93  the  British  taxes  have  undergone 
considerable  increase,  chiefly  due  to  the  South  African  War.  For  the 
financial  year  1903-4  the  average  of  taxation  per  head  was  £3  is.  nd. 
in  England,  and  £1  19s.  id.  in  Ireland.  (House  of  Commons,  April 
13th,   1905,  declaration  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer). 

11  The  exact  figure  is  28.3  per  cent,  and  71.7  per  cent.  (House  of 
Commons,  May  15th,  1906,  statement  by  the  Chancellor  of  the 
Exchequer). 


342  MATERIAL  i.  DECADENCE 

There  is  some  truth  in  these  arguments  ;  but  that  is 
all  that  can  be  said  of  them.  In  the  first  place,  is  it  not 
somewhat  excessive  to  claim  that  taxes  on  consumption 
are  voluntary,  when  in  a  given  country,  with  certain 
established  customs  and  necessities,  they  strike  not 
merely  luxuries,  but  articles  of  general  consumption  ? 
We  need  only  say  that  while  setting  a  premium  on 
sobriety,  this  tax  certainly  leaves  a  margin  for  reductions. 

In  the  second  place,  the  fact   that   the  taxes   in  two 
given  countries  are  identical  does  not  prove  that  they  are 
equal  ;    a  tax  on  tea  or  a  tax  on  coffee  applied  indis- 
criminately to  France  and  England  would  produce  very 
different  effects  in  the  two  nations.      In  this  manner  the 
English  system  of  taxation,   which  is  devised  so  as  to 
weigh  as  little  as  possible  upon  the  masses  in  England, 
and  therefore   makes   allowance  for   their   customs   and 
needs,  presses  all  the  more  heavily  on  the  Irish  masses, 
whose  customs  and  needs  are  entirely  different.      Meat, 
for  instance,  is  exempted.     But  the  poor  in  Ireland  do  not 
eat  meat.    Or  again,  the  duty  on  beer  is  light.  The  Irishman 
drinks  only  about  half  as  much  beer  as  the  Englishman. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  duties  are  high  on  alcohol  and 
tobacco,    of    which    the    Irishman    consumes    almost  as 
much,  only  a  fraction  less  than  the  Englishman,  although 
he  has  less  money  to  spend  on  them.       Owing  to  the 
dampness  of  the  climate,  bad  food,  and  general  poverty, 
these  stimulants  are  more  useful  in  Ireland  than  else- 
where.12    One  last  point  remains  to  be  considered.    Can 
anyone  maintain  that  equality  in  the  rate  of  taxation 
means  equality  in  the  burden  of  taxation  ?     Can  anyone 
maintain  that  because  the  amount  per  head  is  less  in 
Ireland    than    in    England,     therefore     Irish     taxation 
is  the  lighter  of  the  two  ?       Surely  it  is  obvious  that 
everything  depends  on  the  respective  resources   of  the 
tax-payers    in    either     country,     and    on    their    relative 

12  The  Irishman  in  1892-93  spent  12s.  ^d.  on  Tobacco,  26s.  6d.  on 
Alcohol,  and  27s.  2d.  on  Beer  ;  the  Englishman  12s.  nd.  on  Tobacco, 
29s.  on  Alcohol,  and  53s.  on  Beer.      (Final  Report,  p.  183,  note). 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     343 

capacities.  The  first  point  to  be  settled  is  the  taxable 
capacity  of  each  of  the  two  countries,  and  how  they 
compare  one  with  the  other.  To  determine  the  true 
ratio  between  the  taxable  incomes  of  Ireland  and 
England,  was,  in  fact,  the  principal  aim  of  the  great 
Extra-Parliamentary  Commission 1 3  of  enquiry  which 
the  Liberal  Government  found  it  necessary  to  appoint 
in  1894.  Its  purpose  was  to  study  the  "  financial 
relations  "  between  the  two  countries.  The  rejection  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  two  Home  Rule  Bills  in  1886  and  1893 
had  shown  the  financial  question  to  be  then  the  weak 
point  in  every  attempt  at  arranging  a  modus  vivendi 
between  England  and  Ireland. 

No  sooner  had  the  report  of  the  Financial  Relations 
Commission  been  published,  in  September  1896,  than  a 
sudden  ferment  arose  in  Ireland.  Until  then  Ireland  had 
protested  against  her  taxes  being  levied  by  an  external 
power,  but  not  against  the  amount  levied.  Suddenly  she  was 
officially  informed  that  she  was  overtaxed,  or  in  other  words, 
robbed  of  a  very  considerable  amount.  The  Joint  Report  of 
the  Commission,  signed  by  11  out  of  13  members,  decided 
as  a  matter  of  fact  that  the  Act  of  Union  placed  on  the 
shoulders  of  Ireland  a  burden  impossible  for  her  to  bear  ; 
that  the  increase  of  taxation  laid  on  her  in  the  middle  of 
the   nineteenth   century   could   not   be   justified  ;     and, 

13  The  Financial  Relations  Commission  was  composed  of  1  3  members 
and  presided  over  by  a  former  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  Mr.  Childers 
(who  was  replaced  on  his  death  by  The  O'Conor  Don,  an  Irish  Unionist). 
It  consisted  chiefly  of  specialists  such  as  Lord  Farrer,  Lord  Welby, 
Sir  B.  Currie,  Sir  D.  Barbour,  Sir  R.  Hamilton,  several  Irish  Unionists 
and  three  Nationalist  M.P.'s.  The  terms  of  reference  of  the  Commis- 
sion were  to  enquire  : — 

(1)  Upon  what  principles  of  comparison  and  by  the  application 
of  what  specific  standards  the  relative  capacity  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  to  bear  taxation  may  be  most  equitably  determined. 

(2)  What,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  is  the  true  proportion 
under  the  principles  and  specific  standards  so  determined  between 
the  taxable  capacity  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

(3)  The  history  of  the  financial  relations  between  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  at  and  after  the  Legislative  Union,  the  charge  for 
Irish  purposes  on  the  Imperial  Exchequer  during  that  period,  and 
the  amount  of  Irish  taxation  remaining  available  for  contribution 
to  imperial  expenditure  ;  also  the  imperial  expenditure  to  which 
it  is  considered  equitable  that  Ireland  should  contribute. 


344  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

finally,  that  the  present  taxable  capacity  of  Ireland 
did  not  exceed  one-twentieth  part  of  that  of  Great 
Britain  (and  was  perhaps  far  less),  whereas  Ireland 
paid  in  taxes  one-eleventh  of  the  amount  paid  by  Great 
Britain.  Landlords  and  tenants,  Unionists  and 
Nationalists,  Catholics  and  Protestants,  all  classes  alike, 
united  in  protesting  against  the  exploitation  of  Ireland 
by  England.  Everywhere  meetings  took  place.  At 
Cork,  Lord  Castletown  recalled  the  Boston  riots  that 
formed  the  prelude  to  the  War  of  Independence.  At 
Limerick,  Lord  Dunraven,  a  Protestant,  presided  at  a 
meeting  together  with  Doctor  O'Dwyer,  a  Catholic 
Bishop,  and  John  Daly,  a  Fenian.  In  short,  for  the 
first?  time  in  history,  all  classes  of  Irishmen,  forgetting 
their  quarrels,  seemed  to  have  met  together  in  order  to 
claim  justice  from  England.  .  .  .  Here  then  we  may 
well  pause  to  study  theii  financial  grievance,  as  stated 
by  the  Commissioners  after  their  labours  of  enquiry. 

Firstly,  what  basis  of  comparison  were  they  to  select 
tor  estimating  the  taxable  capacity  of  either  country  ? 
Population,  comparative  imports  and  exports,  com- 
parative home  consumption — all  these  three  tests  must 
be  regarded  as  inaccurate  or  as  only  giving  approximate 
results.  The  next  test  suggested  was  the  Death  Duties. 
These,  however,  only  deal  with  capital,  not  with  income. 
The  least  inaccuiate  standard  is  that  obtainable  from 
the  net  returns  of  Income  Tax.  This  gives  us  as  a  result 
that  the  taxable  capacity  of  Ireland  compared  to  that  of 
Great  Britain  is  as  i  to  21  or  22M 

A  better  method  of  arriving  at  the  aggregate  national 
incomes  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  is  that  suggested 
to  the  Commission  by  the  eminent  statistician,  Sir  Robert 
Giffen.  He  would  ascertain  in  the  first  place  the  net 
annual  revenue  of  the  whole  LTnited  Kingdom  (including 
Ireland),    and    then   separately   the   income    of    Ireland. 

J4  Final  Report,  p.  18,  41,  171,  etc.  The  question  has  been  raised 
w  hether  the  Income  Tax  returns  furnish  too  high  or  too  low  an  estimate 
of  the  revenue  of  each  country.  On  this  point  V.  the  arguments 
recapitulated  in  the  Final  Report,  p.  62,  and  172. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     345 

As  regards  the  United  Kingdom,  we  may  take  the  usual 
and  minimum  figure  of  1,500  millions  sterling.^  As 
regards  Ireland,  a  first  estimate,  based  on  the  gross 
returns  of  the  income  tax,16  would  give  76  millions  ; 
another  estimate,  based  on  the  annual  value  of  agri- 
cultural produce,1 7  would  give  63  millions.  It  is  there- 
fore at  between  one-twentieth  and  one-twenty-second 
that  we  must  set  the  relative  proportion  of  Ireland's 
income  as  compared  with  that  of  the  United  Kingdom.18 
Let  us  accept  these  estimates,  reply  the  Nationalists, 
although  in  reality  they  lend  themselves  to  ciiticism.10- 
But  do  even  these  returns  of  the  income  of  the  two 
countries  form  the  true  basis  of  comparison  ?  No.  True 
equality  in  taxation,   according   to   Stuart   Mill,   means 

I5  Sir  Robert  Giffen  had  stated  the  figure  at  1,450  millions  before 
the  Commission  in  1893,  namely  :  640  millions  of  income-tax-paying 
income,  630  millions  for  wages  and  salaries  of  the  manual  labour  classes  ; 
and  1 50  to  200  millions  of  intermediate  income.  Mr.  Bowley  before 
the  Royal  Statistical  Society  stated  the  figures  at  1,600  millions.  (Final 
Report,  p.  174.     Evidence,  II.,  p.  12). 

to  According  to  Sir  Robert  Giffen,  it  appears  a  tolerably  safe  rule  to 
double  the  gross  assessment  of  Income  Tax  in  order  to  arrive  at  the 
total  income  of  the  country.     (V.  Evidence,  II.,  p.  12,  164). 

!7  Sir  R.  Giffen  estimates  at  40  millions  sterling  the  agricultural 
revenue  of  Ireland.  This  revenue  is  produced  by  64  per  cent,  of  the 
population.  What  do  the  other  36  per  cent,  of  the  population  produce  ? 
It  is  impossible  to  give  details.  We  may  assume  that  they  produce, 
per  head,  as  much  as  the  agriculturists.  This  would  give  a  total  of 
23  millions.  The  total  revenue  would  be  63  millions  (Evidence,  p.  11, 
1 3,  166).  It  is  to  be  noted  that  Mr.  Grimshaw  estimated  the  agricultural 
revenue  of  Ireland  at  a  higher  figure  than  that  of  Sir  R.  Giffen,  46 
millions  net.  Sir  R.  Giffen  was  successful  in  proving  the  inaccuracy 
of  the  basis  on  which  Mr.  Grimshaw's  estimates  were  founded.  (V. 
Evidence,  I.,  p.  119.  etc.  ;    II.,  p.  13,  etc.). 

!&  Final  Report,  p.  175.  From  the  Irish  revenue  must  be  deducted 
the  economic  drain  approximately  estimated  at  6  millions  (including 
not  only  rent  due  to  absentee  landlords  but  also  the  interest  on 
mortgages  held  in  England,  interest  on  advances,  and  various  expenses). 
Cf.  Evidence,  II.,  p.  196. 

x9  According  to  Irish  writers,  Sir  Robert  Giffen's  figures  err  on  the 
side  of  excess.  On  the  one  hand,  his  estimate  of  agricultural  income 
is  based  on  statistics  of  prices  paid  for  produce  the  greater  number 
of  which  are  too  high.  (Evidence,  I.,  p.  2S3,  etc.).  Besides  which  it 
is  unlikely  that  the  36  per  cent,  of  Irish  people  who  do  not  live  by 
agriculture  should  produce  per  head  a  revenue  equal  to  that  of  the 
agricultural  community.  Mr.  Childers  does  not  estimate  the  produce 
of  the  non-agricultural  section  at  more  than  8  million  pounds  ;  or  the 
whole  income  of  Ireland  at  more  than  48  millions.  (Final  Report, 
p.  180). 


346  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

equality  of  sacrifice.  Let  us,  then,  deduct  from  the  total 
revenue  of  Ireland  and  Great  Britain  a  sum  (per  head 
of  the  inhabitants)  equal  to  the  necessary  minimum  of 
subsistence,  say  £10.  After  this  deduction  there  will 
remain  1076  millions  of  taxable  income  in  Great  Britain 
and  30  millions  in  Ireland  ;  which  figures  give  a  proportion 
of  1  to  36.2° 

Thus  one  after  another,  witnesses  and  members  of  the 
Commission  give  their  estimates.  But  the  chief  fact 
established  by  the  general  report  is  that  not  a  single  one 
of  them  estimates  the  taxable  capacity  of  Ireland  at 
over  one-twenty-first  part  of  that  of  Great  Britain.  We 
may,  then,  take  this  proportion  as  representing  the 
minimum  of  what  Ireland  can  in  justice  claim.  Now 
Ireland,  in  1893-94,  contributed  £7,568,  649,  and  England 
£89,286,978  to  the  Imperial  Exchequer  (say  a  proportion 
of  1  to  11,  or  1  to  12).  As  Ireland  ought  only  to  have 
contributed  1-2 1st  of  the  total,  say  £4,612,170,  it 
is  obvious  that  she  paid  £2,956,479  too  much  ;  in  other 
words,  that  she  was  overtaxed  to  that  extent  as  compared 
with  the  rest  of  the  United  Kingdom.21 

20  Final  Report,  p.  85.  Cf.  p.  70,  182.  If  we  take  £12  as  the  amount 
to  be  deducted,  the  ratio  would  only  be  as  1  to  40,  or,  according  to 
another  calculation,  as  1  to  60.  The  principle  of  deducting  a  sum 
corresponding  to  the  minimum  of  subsistence  was  admitted  by  Sir 
R.  Giffen  (Evidence,  II.,  p.  166).  and  by  the  representative  of  the 
Treasury,  Sir  E.  Hamilton  (lb.,  I.,  p.  359).  The  Chairman,  Mr.  Childers, 
on  the  contrary,  showed  that  as  a  rigid  principle  it  is  impossible  to 
admit  the  exemption  of  all  revenue  below  a  certain  figure.  He  showed 
also  that  between  Ireland  and  England  there  is  no  common  measure 
according  to  which  one  can  fix  a  minimum  of  subsistence.  Moreover, 
he  added,  and  most  justly,  that  as  regards  capacity  for  bearing  taxation, 
the  superiority  of  a  rich  country  over  a  poor  country  is  greater  than 
its  proportionate  superiority  in  income.       (Final  Report,  p.    182.) 

21  One  must,  it  is  true,  take  account  of  the  following  set-off.  The 
expenses  of  the  Constabulary  or  police,  and  those  of  primary  education, 
are  paid  in  Ireland  out  of  the  imperial  budget,  whereas  in  Great  Britain 
the  local  authorities  pay  about  half  the  cost  of  the  police,  and  about 
two-thirds  of  the  cost  of  primary  education.  It  is  necessary,  therefore, 
when  comparing  the  budgets  to  deduct  (as  Mr.  Childers  has  done) 
from  the  total  of  Ireland's  overtaxation  in  1893-94  a  sum  equal  to 
that  amount  which  in  England  falls  on  the  local  authorities.  The 
amount  of  this  necessary  deduction  is  estimated  by  Mr.  Childers 
at  half  a  million  sterling  in  1893-94.  The  net  remainder  theiefore  is 
about  i\  millions  sterling.  This  is  the  amount  of  overtaxation  in 
Ireland.      (Final  Report,  p.  192). 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     347 

What  reply  is  made  by  the  defenders  of  England's 
financial  policy  in  Ireland  ?  22 

Indirect  taxation,  they  say,  which  is  the  chief  subject 
of  Irish  complaints,  does  not  aim  at  being  proportionate 
nor  pretend  to  be  so  ;  this  is  a  fact  known  to  everybody. 
Take  the  East  End  of  London  ;  you  will  find  that  it  is 
considerably  "  overtaxed  "  as  compared  with  the  rest  of 
London.  "  I  do  not  believe,"  said  Nassau  Senior,  "  that 
Ireland  is  a  poor  country  because  she  is  overtaxed,  but 
I  think  she  is  overtaxed  because  she  is  poor."  "  Besides 
which,"  they  say,  "  we  cannot  consider  Ireland  as  a  separate 
entity,  seeing  that  she  has  been  united  to  England  once 
and  for  all  by  the  Act  of  Union  in  1800.  If  Ireland  is 
to  be  considered  apart,  why  not  Scotland  also  ;  and  if 
Scotland,  why  not  also  the  ancient  Kingdom  of  Kent  ?  " 
To  which  the  Irish  reply  that  the  Act  of  Union  guaranteed 
for  Ireland,  as  for  Scotland,  the  right  to  ';  exemptions 
and  abatements  "  when  necessary  ;  that  Ireland  must 
receive  separate  consideration  because  both  her  history 
and  her  geographical  position  have  decreed  that  it  shall 
be  so  ;  and  replying  to  Nassau  Senior  in  his  own  words, 
they  declare  that  under  the  same  system  of  taxation 
England  is  the  most  lightly  taxed,  and  Ireland  the  most 
heavily  taxed  country  in  Europe. 

"Moreover,"  continue  the  defenders  of  the  Treasury,"  even 
if  we  admit  the  fairness  of  the  proportion  1  to  20,  are 
we  to  base  our  comparison  on  the  gross  contribution  of 
Ireland  to  the  Imperial  Exchequer  ?  Surely  not.  We 
must  deduct  the  amount  that  Ireland  costs  the  Empire  ; 
that  is  to  say,  about  £5,602,555  for  the  year  1893-94. 
As  a  net  result  Ireland  only  contributes  £1,966,086  to 
the  common  expenditure,  or  about     1-32. 23      Far  from 

22  V.  the  separate  reports  of  Sir  D.  Barbour  and  Sir  Th.  Suther- 
land. 

23  And  this  proportion  becomes  less  and  less.  In  1898-1899  it 
amounted  only  to  1-42.  In  1903- 1904  the  net  contribution  of  Ireland 
was  only  £2, 200.. 500  (as  compared  with  ^92,957,500  paid  by  England 
as  "  imperial  contribution,"  or  a  proportion  of  1-43  (Parliamentary 
Paper  269  of  July  18th,  1904).  Ireland  each  year  costs  more  and 
more  and  brings  in  less  and  less  to  the  Empire.  This  is  a  strong 
argument  in  favour  of  Home  Rule. 


34S  MATERIAL    DECADENCE. 

paying  three  millions  above  her  share,  she  is  actually 
presented  with  £1,065,630  ;  far  from  losing  she  in  reality 
gains  by  the  Union  !"  "  He  who  proves  too  much  proves 
nothing,"  reply  the  Irish.  "What  justification  is  there  for 
making  these  deductions,  or  for  setting  aside  as  specially 
Irish  all  the  expenses  now  paid  by  ;  Ireland,  '  all  such 
expenses  as  would  disappear  if  Ireland  herself  were  to 
disappear  ?  '  Can  it  be  denied  that  the  civil  list  of  the 
Viceroy  is  a  part  of  the  imperial  expenditure,  or  the 
judicial  expenses  and  the  '  Castle  '  salaries  ?  Besides, 
admitting  your  distinctions,  might  we  not  also  argue 
against  the  extravagant  cost  of  Irish  civil  services 
permitted  by  your  government.  The  enormous  salary 
of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  large  salaries  of  the  judges, 
the  abundance  of  sinecures,  in  fact  all  the  unfair  charges 
that  result  from  a  compulsory  union  between  a  very  poor 
and  a  very  rich  country  ?  And  might  we  not  ask  on 
what  principle  we  are  expected  to  contribute  to  imperial 
services,  properly  so-called,  namely,  to  the  army,  to  the 
fleet,  and  to  the  colonies,  from  all  of  which  we  derive  no 
benefit  ?  The  colonies  are  costly  and  bring  no  return 
to^  Gieat  Britain  ;  why  should  Ireland,  which  costs 
Britain  nothing,  be  obliged  to  find  supplies  for  British 
Imperialism  ?  "  24 

Of  all  criticisms  on  the  work  of  the  Financial  Relations 
Commission,  the  most  serious  is  that,  while  pointing  out 
an  evil,  it  proposes  no  remedy.  A  complete  alteration 
of  the  system  of  taxation  in  the  LTnited  Kingdom  was 
out  of  the  question.  A  reduction  of  duties  on  articles 
consumed  in  Ireland  would  have  meant  re-establishing 
customs  houses  between  Ireland  and  England.  Besides 
which,  is  there  anyone  in  Ireland  itself,  who  would  have 
advocated  a  reduction  of  duties  on  spirits  ?  There 
remained,  therefore,  only  one  possible  course,  namely,  to 
leave  the  over-taxation  of  Ireland  unchanged,  but  to  grant 
her  compensation  in  the  imperial  budget,  in  the  shape  of 

24  Final  Report,  p.  23,  etc.  ;    p.  47,  50,  103,  188,  etc. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION      349 

annual  subsidies  for  objects  of  public  interest. 25  It 
happens  at  this  very  moment  that  Ireland  is  in  need  of 
funds  for  land  reform,  for  raising  the  West  out  of 
destitution,  for  industrial  development,  and  for  the 
economic  reorganisation  of  the  country.  Here  we  have 
the  means  of  satisfying  her  needs.  And  surely  some  duty 
lies  on  England,  some  duty  of  reparation  towards  this 
country,  whose  development  has  been  so  long  prevented 
by  her  oppression.  Unfortunately  this  solution,  if  it  be 
a  solution,  has  been  considered  too  costly  by  England. 
Nor  does  it  dispose  of  the  fact  that  Ireland  is  overtaxed. 
The  question  remains  then  :  what  is  the  best  course  to 
pursue  ?  The  uncertainty  and  difficulties  surrounding 
every  course  provided  the  Unionists,  who  were  in  power 
from  1895  to  1905,  with  an  excellent  excuse  for  doing 
nothing.  Their  Government  disarmed  the  Irish  landlords 
by  promising,  and  later,  in  1898,  by  assigning  them  a 
large  grant  of  money  which  freed  them  from  all  local 
taxation  on  their  tenanted  land  ;  and  having  done  this 
was  able  to  let  the  Nationalists  go  on  protesting  at  their 
pleasure.  Ireland  is  still  as  heavily  overtaxed  to-day,  as 
she  was  shown  to  be  ten  years  ago.  Even  the  actual 
figures  exhibit  very  little  alteration.  In  1903-1904  Ireland 
paid  into  the  Exchequer  £9,748,500,  and  Great  Britain 
£137,184,500  (which  gives  a  proportion  of  about  1  to 
14). 26  II  we  base  our  calculations  on  the  ratio  of 
1  to  20,  Ireland  ought  only  to  have  paid  £6,999,000. 
She  has  therefore  paid  more  than  her  share  by  £2,749,500. 
The  financial  exploitation  of  Ireland  by  England  is  still 
going  on.27 

25  Final  Report,  p.  51,   194,  etc. 

2b  Estimated  true  revenue  according  to  Parliamentary  Paper,  number 
269,  of  July  1 8th,   1904. 

27  Irish  Budget.  The  receipts  of  the  imperial  budget,  as  collected 
in  Ireland,  amount  to  a  total  of  £11,646,500  for  the  year  1903-1904  ; 
namely:  Customs,  £2,545,000;  ~Excise,  £5,904,000;  Estate  duties, 
stamps,  etc.,  £1.033,000;  Income  Tax,  £1,038,000;  Post  Office, 
Telegraph,  etc.,  £980,000  ;  Various  headings,  £146,500.  Out  of  this  total 
the  official  statistics  estimate  £9,748,500  as  the  total  amount  really 
received  from  Ireland  (estimated  true  revenue). 

The  expenditure  on  Ireland  paid  out  of  imperial  funds  in  the  same 


35o  MATERIAL    DECADENCE. 


IV. — Emigration. 

We  now  come  to  the  great  social  factor,  the  fundamental 
characteristic  of  contemporary  Ireland,  namely,  Emigra- 
tion, or,  to  employ  a  Biblical  word  that  expresses  far 
better  than  all  others  the  extraordinary  and  unexampled 
element  in  this  phenomenon,  the  Exodus  ;  the  Exodus 
of  the  Irish  from  Ireland  ;  the  Exodus  which,  during  the 
last  sixty  years,  has  torn  from  her  no  less  than  5,300,000 
of  her  children  ;  which,  even  now,  draws  away  from  her 
about  one  per  cent  of  her  population  in  each  succeeding 
year,  and  will  soon  cause  it  to  be  said  that  Ireland  is  no 
longer  to  be  found  in  Ireland  where  flows  the  Shannon, 

year  amounts  to  £'7,548,000,  namely  :  £170,000  charged  on  the 
Consolidated  Fund;  £4,569,000  on  Parliamentary  votes;  £1,405,000 
on  the  Local  Taxation  Account  (£376,000  is  paid  out  of  Local  Taxation 
Revenue)  ;  £248,000  for  Collection  of  Taxes  ;  £1,126,000  for  Post 
Office  and  Telegraph  service.  By  deducting  the  total  expenditure 
from  the  estimated  true  revenue,  a  remainder  is  obtained  of  £2,200,500. 
This  sum.  then,  represents  (according  to  the  theories  of  the  Exchequer) 
Ireland's  contribution  to  Imperial  services. 

Other  financial  grievances  of  Ireland.  Ireland,  from  a  financial  point 
of  view,  has  other  and  subsidiary  grievances  against  England,  of  which 
the  following  are  a  few  instances  : 

The  Act  for  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  Ireland 
(1869)  decided  that  the  surplus  of  the  Church  Fund  should  be  employed 
in  relief  of  public  sufferings  and  misfortunes.  A  small  amount  of  the 
Church  Fund  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  used  for  these  purposes.  But 
the  greater  portion  has  been  used  for  public  education,  etc.  (V.  lb.). 
Bv  this  means  the  imperial  budget  was  relieved  of  expenses  that  ought 
normally  to  have  fallen  on  it,  and  Ireland  suffered  a  corresponding 
loss.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Equivalent  Grants,  which  have 
been  established  several  times  in  favour  of  Ireland  as  a  set-off  for 
financial  advantages  granted  to  Great  Britain  by  special  Acts.  Thus, 
the  Education  Act  of  1902  having  allotted  large  annual  sums  to 
education  in  England,  a  proportionate  allocation  has  since  then  been 
made  to  Ireland  under  the  name  of  the  Irish  Development  Fund. 
Now,  however,  expenses  which  normally  speaking  should  fall  on  the 
general  budget,  are  charged  on  this  special  Irish  Fund.  In  this  matter, 
also,  Ireland  suffers  loss. 

Another  subject  of  complaint  is  found  in  connection  with  the  loans 
made  by  Ireland  to  England.  Except  for  a  few  rare  Free  Grants  or 
subsidies,  England  has  never  given  anything  to  Ireland  ;  she  has 
merely  lent  her,  from  time  to  time,  various  sums  of  a  more  or  less 
considerable  amount,  notably  those  for  relief  in  time  of  famine,  for 
assistance  in  charitable  work,  loans  for  the  purchase  of  seed,  etc.,  in 
which  cases  the  Treasury  has  always  recouped  itself  out  of  the  local 
taxation  (there  have  been  a  few  remissions  of  debts,  but  under  very 
onerous  conditions  for  Ireland).      The  principle   of    making  advances 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION      351 

but  rather  beside  the  banks  of  the  Hudson  River,  and  in 
that  "  Greater  Ireland  "  whose  home  is  the  American 
Republic. 

Emigration  (apart  from  the  immense  numbers  which 
make  this  modern  Exodus  a  tragedy)  is  not  in  reality  an 
isolated  or  exceptional  fact  in  the  sad  history  of  tfie  Irish 
people.  Only  too  often  one  reads  how  persecutions  and 
massacres  have  driven  patriots  into  exile.  The  emigration 
of  the  Celts  and  the  "  Celticised  "  under  Elizabeth  was 
succeeded  by  that  of  the  Catholics  under  Cromwell  and 
under  William  III.  and  his  successors,  and  by  that  of  the 
Presbyterians  in  the  18th  Century.  Nevertheless  the 
Irish  population,  estimated  at  1,100,000  by  Sir  W.  Petty 
in    1672,    continued    to    increase    throughout    the    18th 

that  must  be  repaid,  for  purposes  that  are  not  reproductive, 
is  one  that  certainly  lends  itself  to  criticism.  It  is  ruinous  for 
the  debtor.  It  is  in  reality,  as  the  English  proverb  says,  "  feeding 
the  dog  on  his  own  tail."  But  the  matter  does  not  stop  there.  The 
Exchequer  makes  a  profit  on  these  loans  ;  it  lends  at  interest  varving 
between  3^  and  5  per  cent.,  although  it  can  obtain  money  at  less  than 
3  per  cent.  This  is  a  good  instance  of  British  generosity.  (See  the 
Financial  Relations  Commission  Final  Report,  p.  12,  etc.,  163,  etc. 

The  Treasury  has  also  a  curious  custom  of  constituting  itself  the 
Mentor  of  Ireland.  The  following  is  a  typical  example  : — By  a  Technical 
Education  Act,  the  local  authorities  had  been  authorised,  in  1889,  to 
raise  id.  in  the  pound  for  purposes  of  Technical  Education  ;  and  they 
had  been  promised  an  equivalent  grant  to  the  amount  of  ^62,000  a 
year.  Then,  however,  the  Act  of  1899,  when  creating  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction,  provided  an  annual  grant 
°f  ^55.°°°  f°r  the  same  purpose.  Since  then,  the  Treasury,  on  its 
own  authority,  has  refused  to  allow  the  grant  provided  in  1889. 

Local  Finance.  The  ordinary  sums  received  by  the  local  authorities 
of  Ireland  amounted  for  the  year  1903-1904  to  a  total  of  /4,04s, 500, 
of  which  ^2,993,308  was  raised  by  the  rates,  £497,666  from  tolls,  fees, 
etc.,  and  ^557.526  from  various  other  sources. 

Before  1898,  the  rates  in  country  districts  included  the  county  cess, 
paid  by  the  tenant,  and  the  poor  rate,  paid  half  by  the  tenant  half  by 
the  landlord  (or  by  the  landlord  alone  if  the  rateable  valuation  was 
below  ^4).  The  Local  Government  Act  of  1898  fused  the  two  rates 
into  one,  which  falls  on  the  tenant  alone.  At  the  same  time  it  allowed 
the  rural  local  authorities  an  annual  Agricultural  Grant  representing 
half  the  amount  of  the  old  County  Cess  and  the  old  Poor  Rate  (the 
landlords  being  thus  freed  from  local  taxation  on  such  of  their  lands 
as  are  let  to  tenants).  The  actual  rates  weigh  heavily  on  the  country. 
An  official  Commission  of  Enquiry,  taking  as  its  basis  the  year  1901, 
found  that  they  represented  a  charge  higher  by  one-third  than  those 
in  Great  Britain.  (Royal  Commisssion  on  Local  Taxation  (Ireland), 
Final  Report,  p.  22).  The  average  rate  is  about  12  per  cent,  of  the 
rateable  value.  In  some  unions  it  rises  as  high  as  7,  8,  or  9  shillings 
m  the  pound,  that  is  to  say,  to  35  or  45  per  cent,  of  the  rateable  value. 


352  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

Century  and  during  the  first  half  of  the  19th,1  until  in 
1841  it  was  officially  returned  as  amounting  to  8,175,124 
inhabitants.  By  1846  it  had  reached  the  approximate 
figure  of  8-t  millions.  Then  came  the  Great  Famine. 
Suddenly  a  flood  of  emigration  burst  forth  with 
unexampled  and  irresistible  violence.  Within  the  five 
years  between  1846  and  1851,  it  swept  away  1,240,737 
persons.  These  unfortunates  were  suddenly  handed  over 
defenceless  to  the  dreadful  strangeness  of  exile,  or  to  the 
cruelties  of  those  slave-drivers,  the  emigration  agents. 
They  were  herded  on  to  the  "  coffin-boats,"  such  as  the 
Avon,  on  which  246  passengers  died  out  of  552  ;  or  the 
Virginius,  from  which  267  out  of  476  had  been  buried 
at   sea   before   the   end   of   the     passage.      Nevertheless 

There  have  been  periods  when  it  has  been  known  to  rise  as  high  as 
13  shillings  in  the  pound.  (Financial  Relations  Commission,  Evidence, 
!•>  P-  75)-  £/•  Returns  of  Local  Taxation  in  Ireland  for  1903-1904, 
p.  5  and  9).  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  rateable  valuation  is  far 
lower  in  proportion  than  in  England.  The  average  per  head  is  only 
£2  ios.  as  against  £5  in  England.  (Local  Taxation  Commission,  Final 
Report,  p.  21).  This  figure  of  £2  ios.  is  the  minimum  in  England  (it 
is  to  be  found,  for  instance,  in  the  East  End  of  London).  In  some 
unions  in  the  West  of  Ireland  the  figure  falls  as  low  as  10  shillings 
per  head.      (Cf.  Census,  1901,  General  Report,  p.  88). 

The  local  authorities  in  Ireland,  like  chose  in  England,  receive  grants. 
In  1898  the  system  of  these  grants  was  reorganised.  They  are  : — (1) 
The  produce  of  the  licence  duties  raised  in  Ireland  (plus  two  special 
and  supplementary  allowances  of  £40,000  and  £79,000  a  year).  (2)  9 
per  cent,  of  the  sum  annually  assigned  to  the  local  authorities  of  the 
United  Kingdom  out  of  the  Death  Duties.  (3)  9  per  cent,  of  the 
surtaxes  on  beer  and  alcohol.  (4)  An  annual  Agricultural  Grant  of 
£727,655  representing  half  the  County  Cess  and  half  the  Poor  Rate 
for  the  year  1896- 1897  ;  the  figures  of  that  year  being  selected  as  a 
basis.  The  amount  of  these  grants  is  paid  into  the  Local  Taxation 
Account  where  it  is  divided  (somewhat  unequally)  between  the  local 
authorities.  Each  of  these  grants  has  a  special  object.  Cf.  the  Local 
Taxation  (Ireland)  Returns  (Annual). 

1  V.  the  Census  of  Ireland,  1901,  General  Report,  p.  1  to  3.  A  semi- 
official enquiry  in  1788  returned  the  number  of  the  population  at 
4,040,000.  In  1805,  Major  Newenham's  calculations  gave  a  total  of 
5,395,456.  The  official  Census  did  not  begin  until  1821.  That  of 
1821  gives  6,801,827  inhabitants  ;  that  of  1841  gives  8,175,124 
inhabitants.  Dr.  Grimshaw,  the  Registrar-General,  estimates  the  Irish 
population  in  1845  at  8,295,061.  (Financial  Relations  Commission, 
Evidence,  L,  p.  no;  Facts  and  Figures  about  Ireland,  Dublin,  1893, 
p.  8).  Cf.  O'Rourke,  History  of  the  Great  Irish  Famine,  Dublin,  3rd 
Edition,  1902.  Lord  Dunraven,  The  Crisis  in  Ireland,  London  and 
Dublin,  1905.  Cf.  the  Emigration  Returns  published  every  three 
months  bv  the  Registrar-Ge  -  eral  of  Ireland  and  the  Census  of  1901. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION      353 

England  continued  to  preach  emigration  as  her  new 
Gospel,  and  to  favour,  and  subsidise  it.  The  English  press 
sent  up  cries  of  joy  at  the  idea  of  seeing  Ireland  emptied 
of  the  Irish  people.  "  In  a  short  time,"  wrote  the  Times 
in  an  often  quoted  article,  "  a  Catholic  Celt  will  be  as 
rare  on  the  banks  of  the  Shannon  as  a  Red  Indian  on  the 
shores  of  Manhattan  !  "  The  tide  of  emigration,  which  in 
185 1  had  reached  the  appalling  proportion  of  34.4  per 
thousand  of  the  population,  abated  somewhat  after  18522, 
and  more  especially  after  1857.  From  1857  onward  it 
remained  below  15  per  thousand  during  the  whole  period 
up  to  1880,  with  the  exception  of  a  short  interval  between 
1863  and  1866.  The  actual  numbers  of  emigrants 
represented  by  these  percentages  are  worth  noticing. 
From  1851  to  1861  they  numbered  1,149,118  ;  from  1861 
to  1871  they  numbered  768,859  ;  and  from  1871  to  1881, 
618,650.  About  the  years  1875-1877  there  is  a  respite. 
The  annual  emigration  figures  fall,  for  the  first  time, 
below  40,000,  and — a  most  unexpected  phenomenon — we 
actually  find  the  population  of  Ireland  slightly  increasing 
in  1877.  But  in  1880  the  rush  began  again  with  renewed 
intensity.  In  that  year  the  usual  rate  of  15  per  thousand 
was  passed,  and  in  1883  the  figures  rose  as  high  as  21.6 
per  thousand.  In  that  year  Ireland  lost,  at  one  blow, 
as  many  as  108,724  emigrants.  Since  1885,  we  may  add, 
the  evil  has  tended  to  abate.  In  1892  the  number  of 
emigrants  sank  to  32,241,  which  is  the  lowest  annual 
return  during  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Whereas  between  1881  and  1891  there  had  been  768,105 
emigrants,  between  1891  and  1901  there  were  only 
43° -993.  or  an  annual  average  of  9  per  1,000  (about  half 

2  It  had  never  completely  ceased,  except,  perhaps,  during  the  years 
when  Ireland  was  self-governing  (1782- 1800).  Since  the  beginning  of 
the  19th  century,  increasing  poverty  had  caused  the  reappearance  of 
a  certain  amount  of  emigration,  but  of  no  great  volume.  From 
1831  to  1841,  214,047  persons  left  Ireland.  (O'Rourke,  op.  cit., 
p.  486).  In  1852,  the  figure  was  30  per  1,000.  In  1853,  27.9  per 
1,000.  In  1854,  23.2  per  1,000.  From  1863  to  1866  the  rate  varies 
between  18  per  1,000  and  20.5  per  1,000. 

2  A 


354  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

the  death  rate).      Between  1901     and    1905  there    is   a 
remarkable  decline  in  the  emigration  figures. 3 

From  these  figures  we  may  extract  the  following 
results.  The  population  of  Ireland  has  been  reduced 
from  nearly  8£  millions  in  1846  to  4,402,182  inhabitants 
in  1905.  In  sixty  years,  therefore,  it  has  been  almost 
halved.  In  1801,  England  (including  Wales)  contained 
8,892,536  inhabitants  (153  per  square  mile),  Scotland 
contained  1,608,420  (54  per  square  mile),  and  Ireland 
5,395,456  (166  per  square  mile).  But  in  1901  we  find 
the  English  population  estimated  at  32,526,075  (about 
558  per  square  mile),  that  of  Scotland  at  4,472,103  (about 
150  per  square  mile),  and  that  of  Ireland  at  4,458,775 
(about  137  per  square  mile).  In  a  hundred  years  Scotland 
and  England  have  more  than  trebled  their  population, 
while  Ireland  has  seen  hers  reduced  by  over  one-sixth. 
Ireland,  in  1801,  contained  34  per  cent,  of  the  population 
of  the  United  Kingdom.  In  1901  she  can  claim  no  more 
than  10^-  per  cent. 

|£When  we  take  account  of  the  ages  as  well  as  of  the 
numbers  of  these  emigrants,  we  find  that  90.6  per  cent. 

3  Census  of  Ireland,  1901,  General  Report,  p.  73,  74,  168.  Grimshaw, 
op.  cit.,  L,  p.  60,  Table  of  Statistics.  In  1902  there  were  40,190 
emigrants.  In  1903  there  were  39,789.  In  1904,  36,902.  In  1905, 
31,172. 

The  decline  in  the  figures  is  due  to  the  various  efforts  initiated 
during  the  last  fifteen  years,  for  the  purpose  of  reconstituting 
agricultural  life  by  means  of  co-operation,  and  for  establishing 
an  industrial  renaissance  in  the  Irish  towns.  It  is,  moreover,  the 
result  of  the  land  laws,  which  have  brought  a  sense  of  security 
and  ownership  to  the  tenant  purchasers,  and  simultaneously  a 
new  spirit  of  confidence  and  hope.  (Cf.  above,  p.  265,  and  below 
p.  424,  etc.).  The  Emigration  Statistics  are,  however,  incomplete, 
inasmuch  as  they  do  not  give  the  number  of  young  men  of  the 
middle  classes  who  go  to  England,  or  to  the  Colonies  or  America,  to 
follow  careers  in  journalism,  in  the  law,  in  the  medical  profession,  in 
politics  or  in  the  public  service.  Ireland  is  a  nursery  which  supplies 
men  for  the  liberal  professions  throughout  the  whole  British  Empire. 
The  following  fact  may  be  taken  as  typical  : — the  Irish  Universities 
educate  nearly  three  times  as  many  doctors  as  are  required  in  Ireland. 
From  the  topmost  rung  of  the  ladder  to  the  lowest,  Irish  education 
is  "  organised  with  a  view  to  exportation,"  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Douglas 
Hyde.  (Royal  Commission  on  University  Education,  Evidence,  I.,  145, 
and  III.,  p.  312,  313. 

4  Official  estimate  for  1905.      Cf.  Census  of  1901. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     355 

are  over  10  and  under  45  years  old  ;  and  80.4  per  cent, 
are  ovei  15  and  under  35.  It  is  the  old  people  who  remain 
in  Ireland,  those  who  must  unavoidably  be  a  burden  on 
the  community.  It  is  the  young  and  strong  who  go  ;  the 
young  men  and  women  who  would  be  a  profit  instead 
of  a  loss  to  the  country,  the  flower  and  the  hope  of  the 
nation.  Emigration  takes  the  best.  It  is  an  inverted 
form  of  natural  selection,  which,  as  far  as  Ireland  is 
concerned,  results  in  the  survival  of  the  unfittest.5 

Whence  do  they  come,  and  whither  do  they  go — 
these  emigrants  from  every  corner  of  Ireland,  who  are 
brought  twice  a  week  by  special  trains  to  Cork  and  to 
its  port  of  embarkation,  Queenstown  ?  In  the  first  place, 
where  do  they  go  to  ?  In  the  old  days,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  they  used  to  go  to  the  land  of  brave  exploits 
and  military  glory,  to  Fiance.  Nowadays  they  go  to 
the  land  of  business,  America.  89.4  per  cent  go  to  the 
UnitediStates,  6.4  per  cent,  to  Great  Britain,  2  per  cent,  to 
Australia,  1.5  per  cent,  to  Canada.  There  is  but  little 
variation  in  the  proportions.6  Secondly,  where  do  they 
come  from  ?  As  regards  the  part  played  in  emigration 
by  each  of  the  four  provinces,  there  have,  on  the  contrary, 
been  very  noticeable  variations.  During  the  last  sixty 
years  (1841-1901)  it  is  Ulster  that  has  suffered  least. 
Owing  to  the  development  of  Belfast,  the  capital  of  the 
province,  her  returns  of  population  show  a  diminution 
of  but  33  per  cent  (in  the  country  districts  of  Ulster 
the  population  has  diminished  as  much  as  in  the  rest 
of  Ireland).  It  is  Munster  and  Connaught  that  are  the 
greatest  losers  (55  and  57  per  cent,  respectively). 7  The 
progress  of  the  scourge  differs  in  each  province.  In 
Ulster  and  Leinster,  that  is  to  say  in  the  North  and 
East  of  Ireland,  the  decennial  figures  show  a  fairly  regular 
decrease  in  the  loss  of  inhabitants  (except  for  a  slight  rise 
during  the  decade  1881-1891).    During  the  years  between 

5  Census  of  1901,  1903,  p.  677. 

6  Census  of  1901. 

7  Census,  p.  169,170.    Leinster  has  lost  41  per  cent,  of  her  population. 


356  MATERIAL  DECADENCE 

1841  and  185 1  the  returns  of  depopulation  stood  as  high 
as  15.25  per  cent.  (Leinster)  and  15.69  per  cent.  (Ulster). 
But  for  the  period  between  1891  and  1901  the  proportion 
has  fallen  to  3.26  per  cent,  and  2.28  per  cent,  respectively. 
In  Munster  and  Connaught,  that  is  to  say  throughout 
the  South  and  West,  the  loss  of  population,  having  at 
first  been  very  high,  suddenly  underwent  a  considerable 
reduction,  after  which  the  figures  again  rose,  until, 
during  the  decade  1881-1891,  they  reached  a  higher 
level  than  ever  before.  This  second  rise  was  succeeded 
by  a  second  fall,  which,  however,  proceeded  much  more 
slowly  than  in  the  first  instance,  so  that  in  these  portions 
of  Ireland  the  losses  are  still  far  higher  than  in  the  other 
half.8  In  short,  the  South  and  West  take  longer  to  empty 
than  the  East  and  North.  This  is  easily  explainable  by  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  West  and  South-west  (to  which  might 
be  added  the  North-west)  that  contain  the  largest  area 
of  poverty-stricken  country  districts.  Now,  emigration 
is  not  entirely  a  voluntary  matter.  To  become  an 
emigrant  one  must  first  save  up  the  price  of  a  ticket  and 
also  the  small  amount  of  capital  required  of  intending 
immigrants  into  America.  Besides  which,  morally 
speaking,  a  man  must  have  risen  a  degree  or  two  above 
his  neighbour  before  he  feels  a  desire  to  emigrate.  He 
must  have  emerged  from  the  doubt  and  despair  around 
him,  and  have  become  imbued  with  the  wish  to  rise  and 
to  try  his  fortune.  Thus,  even  at  the  present  day,  certain 
districts  of  the  extreme  West,  some  of  the  most  poverty- 
stricken  in  Ireland,  are  those  from  which  there  is  least 
emigiation.  In  the  County  of  Kerry,  for  instance,  from 
the  districts  of  Dingle  and  Cahirciveen,  there  is  hardly 

*>  In  1841-1851  the  losses  amounted  to  22.47  per  cent,  in  Munster 
and  28.81  per  cent,  in  Connaught.  In  the  following  decade  they 
amounted  only  to  18.53  an<^  9-59  Per  cent.  For  the  decade  1891-1901, 
the  loss  still  remains  as  high  as  8.20  per  cent.  (Munster),  and  10.08 
per  cent.  (Connaught).  There  are  still  8  counties  out  of  32  in  which 
the  annual  losses  amount  to  over  17  per  1,000  of  the  population — all 
these  counties  being  in  the  South  or  West  of  Ireland.  There  are  3  in 
tmich  the  annual  rate  is  over  20  per  1,000  (Kerry,  Galway,  Clare). 
V.     Census,    74,     169,     170. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    357 

any  outflow  of  population,  whereas  there  is  a  very  high 
average  of  emigrants  from  Kenmare  and  Killarney, 
which  are  more  "  civilised." 

The  next  question  is  :  What  are  the  causes  of 
emigration  ?  No  problem  in  the  world  is  apparently  so 
simple,  or  in  reality  so  complex.  What  is  clear,  however, 
is  that  there  is  no  single  and  unique  cause  to  be  assigned 
for  Irish  emigration,  any  more  than  there  is  one  single 
remedy  to  be  named  as  its  cure.  Emigration  is  the 
result  of  a  combination  or  succession  of  causes,  resulting 
from  the  existing  economic,  social,  political  and  moral 
conditions. 

The  English  have  in  many  cases  brought  themselves 
to  regard  Irish  emigration  as  a  natural  phenomenon 
not  only  necessary,  but  even  beneficial.  Being  extremely 
"over-populated,"  Ireland  had  to  be  "depopulated" 
before  she  could  resume  her  economic  equilibrium.  In 
this  case,  they  say,  there  is  no  need  to  invoke  the  finger 
of  God  ;  we  need  only  refer  for  the  explanation  to  the 
law  of  Malthus.  You  surely  would  not  wish  ever  again 
to  see  in  Ireland  a  population  of  eight  or  nine  millions, 
such  as  she  contained  at  the  time  of  the  Great  Famine, 
of  which  over-population  was  the  principal  cause  ?  But 
to  these  arguments  the  answer  is  :  Why  not,  provided 
that  we  have  enough  industries  to  give  employment, 
and  that  our  land  is  properly  apportioned  ?  Ireland  was 
overpopulated  in  former  days  only  because  she  could 
not  provide  enough  work  for  her  inhabitants.  Un- 
doubtedly the  clearances,  agrarian  oppression,  and  the 
lack  of  industries  were  the  original  causes  of  emigration. 
But  why  does  the  movement  still  go  on  ?  Why  is  it 
that  even  at  the  present  day  the  high  average  of  losses 
still  continues  ?9 

This,  say  the  English,  is  merely  a  case  of  a  universal 

9  Ireland  in  1901  sent  out  one  emigrant  for  every  114  of  her 
inhabitants  ;  Norway  sent  out  i  for  every  205  ;  Italy,  1  for  every 
212  ;  Scotland,  1  for  every  214;  Portugal,  1  for  every  241  ;  Spain,  1 
for  every  261  ;  and  Belgium,  1  for  every  267.  The  other  countries 
show  less  than  one  emigrant  to  every  400  inhabitants. 


358  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

and  inevitable  phenomenon,  namely,  the  rural  exodus. 
True,  it  is  replied,  but  with  this  difference  :  Whereas 
in  other  countries  it  is  only  migration,  in  Ireland  it 
is  emigration.  Our  towns  are  in  America  !  say  the 
Irish.  This  is  far  more  than  merely  "  a  rural  exodus." 
Here  we  are  face  to  face  with  the  unprecedented  fact 
that  in  all  classes,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  men 
and  women  are  fleeing  the  country  as  in  the  old  days 
they  fled  before  the  Black  Death  or  the  plagues  of  Egypt. 
The  birthplace  of  a  whole  race  is  being  laid  desolate. 
Soon,  unless  fate  changes  her  course,  that  birth-place 
will  have  become  a  tomb,  beside  the  shrine  of  which 
there  will  no  longer  be  gathered,  even  to  pour  out  their 
prayers  for  her,  those  who  were  once  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  Erin.  They  will  be  lost,  scattered  throughout 
the  continents,  these  exiles  for  whom  the  remembrance  of 
the  old  Motherland  formed  a  bond  of  union  in  all  parts 
of  the  world,  and  who,  when  she  is  dead,  will  no  longer 
even  remember  that  they  are  brothers. 

The  present  causes  of  Irish  emigration  do  not  arise 
merely  out  of  her  agrarian  and  rural  difficulties.  It  is 
not  solely  though  it  is  perhaps  chiefly  due  to  the  lack 
of  national  industries  and  of  trade.  It  is  due  to  the 
general  destitution,  aggravated  by  heavy  taxation.  It 
results  from  the  narrowness  of  life  and  the  lack  of  openings. 
"  You  can't  rise  in  Ireland,"  that  is  the  dominant  feeling. 
An  equal  amount  of  work  does  not  produce  equal  results. 
In  order  to  succeed  you  must  begin  by  leaving  the 
country.  "To  get  up  you  must  get  out  first."  Finally, 
misgovernment  and  political  oppression  are  the  keystone 
of  the  situation.  Surely  it  is  a  natural  desire  for  the  Irish 
to  aspire  towards  a  state  of  things  in  which  the  law, 
be  it  as  hard  as  the  law  in  America,  is  at  all  events  the 
same  for  all  ?  The  Irish  will  always  regard  the  United 
States  as  above  all  others  the  land  of  liberty  ;  and  they 
will  always  bear  graven  on  their  hearts  those  words  of 
John  Stuart  Mill  :  "  When  the  inhabitants  of  a  country 
quit  the  country  en  masse  because  its  government  will 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     359 

not  make  it  a  place  fit  for  them  to  live  in,  that  govern- 
ment is  judged  and  condemned."  I0 

There  is  one  last  cause  of  emigration,  that  is  to  say, 
emigration  itself.  Emigration  engenders  emigration.  The 
more  the  peasants  emigrate,  the  more  is  social  life 
destroyed  in  the  country  districts  ;  hence  a  fresh  reason 
for  emigrating.  Inversely,  the  greater  the  number  of 
Irish  in  America,  the  more  complete  is  the  social  life 
they  find  in  their  new  home  ;  this  is  a  new  factor  in  the 
emigration  problem.  During  the  last  twenty  years  a 
deep  change  has  taken  place  in  Irish  feeling  as  regards 
going  to  America.  America  has  become  their  second 
native  land,  and  emigration  one  of  their  customs.  Many 
people  live  in  the  hopes  of  seeing  or  in  the  regret  of  never 
having  seen  that  land  of  promise,  America.  Children 
are  brought  up  with  the  idea  of  probably  becoming 
emigrants  ;  trained  to  regard  life  "  in  the  country"  as 
a  transitory  matter,  merely  a  period  of  waiting  until  the 
time  shall  come  for  them  to  begin  life  "over  there." 
Ireland,  according  to  the  proverb,  is  "a  Purgatory, 
where  the  Irish  must  suffer  in  patience  before  going  to 
America."  To  go  to  America  no  longer  conveys  the 
same  idea  of  exile  or  expatriation.  One  may  be  as  much 
at  home  in  New  Ireland  as  in  the  "  old  country."  An 
emigrant  who  was  asked  why  he  was  going  to  New  York 
replied,  "  because  it  is  nearer."11  He  knew  that  he  would 
feel  less  strange  and  less  isolated  from  his  own  family  in 
America  than  in  a  neighbouring  county  of  his  native  land. 
There  is  hardly  a  family  in  Ireland  that  does  not  number 
among  its  relatives  and  friends  some  who  are  now  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  And  those  who  have  gone 
frequently  persuade  those  left  behind  to  follow  them, 
often,  indeed,  paying  their  passage  beforehand  ;  38  per  cent. 
of  the  boat-tickets  are  forwarded  in  this  manner  from 
America.12        Another  svmptom — among  those  who  are 

10  Political  Economy,  Book  II.,  Chapter  X.,  paragraph  1. 

11  Cited  by  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  in  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  56. 

12  The  figure  supplied  by  the  Registrar -General. 


36o  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

going  one  no  longer  finds  the  despair  which  in  former 
days  was  so  dreadful  to  see  ;  there  is  no  longer  the 
same  heart-rending  depression  They  go,  not,  of 
course,  with  happiness  in  their  faces,  but  with  resigna- 
tion and  resolution,  and  with  the  feeling,  a  cheerful 
feeling,  perhaps   new  to  them,  of  hope  in  their  hearts. 

Side  by  side,  then,  with  forced  emigration,  there  has 
come  into  being  a  current  of  voluntary  emigration. 
This  I  believe  to  be  a  very  grave  sign  as  regards  the 
future  of  the  country.  It  is  an  indication  of  the  power 
of  this  movement  which,  in  spite  of  decreased  numbers, 
retains  a  singularly  strong  hold  on  the  people.  As  yet 
it  shows  no  sign  of  being  near  its  end,  although  it  must 
inevitably  bring  Ireland  to  ruin  and  annihilation.  For 
on  the  one  hand,  the  emigrants  are  forever  lost  to  the 
Mother  Country.  In  the  United  States  no  immigrant 
becomes  Americanised  more  quickly  than  the  Irishman. 
True,  the  Irish-Americans  do  not  forget  the  old  country. 
Year  after  year  they  send  over  to  Ireland  vast  sums 
of  money,  the  amount  of  which  has  been  estimated  at 
an  average  of  almost  a  million  sterling  for  good  and  bad 
seasons  alike.  *3  But  very  few,  indeed,  return  to  Ireland.  *4 
On  the  other  hand  there  is  a  corollary  to  Irish  emigration, 
namely  the  British  plantation  of  Ireland,  the  silent 
invasion  of  Ireland  by  the  English  and  Scotch,  who  in 
commerce,  industry,  and  public  services  are  gradually 
taking  the  place  of  the  natives.  More  and  more,  every 
year,  the  Anglo-Saxon,  with  his  capital  and  his  practical 
turn  of  mind,  comes  over  to  "  work  Ireland  for  all  she 
is  worth,"  as  a  business  investment.  If  the  Irish  are  not 
careful,  the  day  will  come  when  they  will  see  themselves 

l3  O'Rourke,  History  of  the  Great  Irish  Famine,  p.  504.  Mulhall,  the 
statistician,  writing  in  1886,  estimated  the  remittances  from  America 
at  32  millions  sterling  since  185 1.  According  to  Lord  Dufferin,  13 
millions  were  sent  over  during  the  17  years  that  followed  the  Great 
Famine. 

*4  Recent  statistics  seem  to  show  that  the  number  of  Irish- Americans 
who  visit  Ireland  for  a  holiday  each  year  is  very  high,  and  that  a  large 
number  of  persons  returned  as  emigrants  from  Ireland  are  in  reality 
those  who  are  going  back  again  to  America  after  a  few  weeks  spent  in 
their  native  land. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    361 

dispossessed  and  treated  as  strangers  in  their  own  native 
land.  The  revolution  that  Cromwell  dared  not  complete 
with  the  sword  seems  on  the  verge  of  being  accomplished 
by  pacific  methods.  While  Ireland  is  being  depopulated 
of  the  Irish,  she  is  being  gradually  peopled  with  Anglo- 
Saxons.^ 


V. — The  Final  Phase  of  Decay. 

One  often  heais  it  maintained  that  those  whom  the 
emigrants  leave  behind  them  in  the  Motherland  are 
raised  to  a  better  position  by  the  Exodus,  and  that  the 
blood-letting  is  producing,  or  has  already  produced, 
some  healthy  results  in  the  social  organism.  Those  who 
go,  so  it  is  said,  leave  more  room  for  the  others,  and  open 
up  a  wider  field  for  their  neighbours  ;  and  in  this  manner 
the  struggle  for  life  is  alleviated  for  everyone.  But  the 
facts,  unfortunately,  do  not  seem  to  corroborate  this 
view.  That  for  twenty  years  after  the  Great  Famine 
there  should  have  been  some  amelioration  in  the  con- 
ditions of  life  of  the  poorer  peasantry  is  probable  enough.1 
But  pauperism  as  a  whole  has  decreased  but  little,  if 
indeed  it  has  decreased  at  all.  The  daily  average  of 
persons  receiving  relief  in  1852-3  was  2.13  per  1,000  of 
the  population.  In  1862-63  the  proportion  had  fallen 
to  1. 12  per  1,000.  Since  then  it  has  constantly  risen, 
and  has  never,  since  1882,  fallen  below  2  per  1,000.     In 

J5  During  the  last  few  years  Ireland  has  realised  the  danger  and  has 
entered  upon  a  vigorous  struggle  against  the  scourge  of  emigration. 
The  "  Extremists  "  were  the  first  to  open  the  campaign.  An  Anti- 
Emigration  Society  was  recently  formed,  with  agents  in  America,  who 
endeavour,  by  means  of  judicious  propaganda,  to  discourage  emigration 
by  setting  forth  the  dangers  and  difficulties  that  await  emigrants,  and 
the  over-crowding  of  the  non- specialist  labour  market  in  the  United 
States,  etc.  The  Catholic  clergy  play  an  active  part  in  this  movement 
for  national  defence.  Nowadays  the  cry  is  not  merely  "  Ireland  for 
the  Irish  "  ;    it  must  also  be  "  the  Irish  for  Ireland." 

1  On  this  point  see  the  answers  of  Mr.  H.  A.  Robinson,  Commissioner 
of  Local  Government,  in  the  Evidence  before  the  Financial  Relations 
Commission,  I.,  p.  79. 


362  MATERIAL    DECADENCE 

1893-94  it  was  2.17  per  1,000  ;  2  and  on  this  point  we 
may  quote  other  figures  as  well.  In  1885  the  work- 
houses admitted  320,550  persons  in  Ireland.  In  1900 
the  number  had  risen  to  363,977  ;  in  the  year  1901  the 
figure  was  321,035.3  In  1885  there  were  120,937  persons 
in  receipt  of  out-door  relief  ;  in  1900  there  were  121,829, 
and  in  1901  110,528.  One  Irishman  out  of  every  eleven 
lives  on  the  rates. 4  In  fact  pauperism  has  scarcely 
diminished  at  all  in  Ireland  ;  some  persons  have  even 
argued,  with  probability,  that  during  the  last  thirty 
years  it  has  increased. S 

Together    with    pauperism    and    emigration  must    be 

2  lb.,  II.,  p.  198. 

3  Thorn's  Official  Directory,  1903,  p.  710. 

4  lb.  accurately  speaking,  9  per  cent,  of  the  population. 

5  Lough,  England's  Wealth  Ireland's  Poverty,  p.  163. 

We  may  add  that  the  condition  of  the  Poor  Law  leaves  much  to  be 
desired.  Its  chief  unit  of  organisation  in  each  of  the  163  Unions  is 
the  workhouse,  which  is  simultaneously  an  almshouse,  a  hospital,  a 
childrens'  asylum,  a  refuge  for  beggars,  etc.  It  is  usually  an  immense 
building,  massive  and  sombre,  with  high  walls  like  a  prison,  and 
standing  on  high  ground  so  as  to  be  visible  for  a  long  distance.  On 
entering  its  precincts  one  finds  half  ruined  buildings,  sometimes 
abandoned  for  lack  of  money,  redolent  of  poverty  and  decay.  Most 
of  them  were  built  before  the  time  of  the  Great  Famine,  and  are, 
consequently,  too  big  for  the  actual  population  of  the  country.  That  at 
Clifden,  which  was  intended  to  accommodate  822  paupers,  had  only 
90  inmates  when  we  visited  it.  That  at  Westport  had  room  for  1,100, 
but  contained  only  150  occupants.  The  salaries  in  connection  with 
them  absorb  an  undue  proportion  of  the  funds  available.  In  the 
Union  of  Stranorlar  they  represent  more  than  half  the  expenditure. 
(Royal  Commission  on  Local  Taxation,  Evidence,  V.,  p.  128  and  129). 
The  board,  lodging,  and  service  of  the  nurses  are  neglected.  Apart 
from  the  workhouses,  the  Poor  Law  Guardians  (who  are  now 
amalgamated  with  the  District  Councils)  distribute  out-door  relief 
(usually  one-and-sixpence  a  week  per  individual).  No  out-door  relief 
is  allowed  to  tenants  of  over  quarter  of  an  acre  of  land  (which  prevents 
most  of  the  peasants  obtaining  any).  Finally,  we  may  add,  that  besides 
the  district  dispensaries,  there  are  county  hospitals,  lunatic  asylums, 
etc.,  and  that,  in  the  towns,  much  is  done  by  private  charity.  A 
Commission  of  Enquiry  was  appointed  in  1905  to  consider  what  reforms 
are  necessary  in  the  Poor  Law  of  Ireland.  The  conclusions  formulated 
in  its  report  may  be  summarised  as  recommending  : — 1.  That  children, 
dealt  with  under  the  Poor  Law,  should  be  boarded-out  in  families 
instead  of  being  kept  in  the  workhouses.  2.  That  tramps  should  be 
detained  for  longer  or  shorter  terms  in  Houses  of  Labour.  3.  That 
lunatics,  consumptives,  epileptics,  and  unmarried  mothers  should  be 
kept  in  separate  institutions.  4.  That  an  almshouse  for  old  people 
should  be  established  in  each  county.  5.  That  the  Quarter  Acre  Clause 
should  be  repealed. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION     363 

chronicled  a  third  great  scourge  of  Ireland,  namely 
alcoholism.  Alcoholism,  though  a  less  serious  evil  than 
is  commonly  stated,  is  nevertheless  more  serious  than 
is  sometimes  believed.  True,  the  consumption  of  spirits 
per  head  does  not  reach  so  high  a  figure  as  in  England.6 
But  the  following  symptoms  give  cause  for  anxiety. 
Firstly,  the  number  of  licensed  houses.  In  1905  there 
were  about  30,000  of  them,  say  one  for  every  146 
inhabitants. 7  In  Dublin  there  are  1,551  public-houses  ; 
in  Belfast  1,110  ;  in  Tralee  117  public-houses  for  9,367 
inhabitants,  say  1  for  every  80  ;  in  Castleisland  there  is 
1  for  every  30  inhabitants  ;  and  in  a  certain  village  in 
Clare,  called  Mullogh,  there  are  10  public-houses  to  179 
inhabitants  !  Secondly,    the    social   power   that    the 

publican — Bung,  or  King  Bung,  as  he  is  popularly  called 
— wields  in  public  affairs.  Thirdly,  from  a  financial 
point  of  view,  the  heavy  bill  that  Ireland  has  to  pay, 
owing  to  her  consumption  of  spirits.  This  amounts  to 
no  less  than  14  or  15  millions  sterling  a  year,  of  which 
more  than  5  millions  find  their  way  to  the  Imperial 
Exchequer.  Finally,  not  to  mention  the  moral  ruin 
resulting  from  alcoholism,  we  come  to  the  physical  harm 
worked  on  a  race  constitutionally  and  organically 
weakened  by  intense  poverty  and  poor  living,  and  con- 
sequently less  able  to  stand  stimulants  than  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  those  "  strong  machines  for  eating  meat,"  as 
the  Irish  call  them. 

6  In  1892  the  sums  spent  per  head  on  alcohol  and  beer  in  Great 
Britain  and  in  Ireland  respectively,  worked  out  as  follows  : — in  Great 
Britain,  £1  9s.  on  spirits  ;  in  Ireland,  £1  6s.  6d.  on  spirits  ;  in  Great 
Britain,  £2  13s.  on  beer  ;  in  Ireland,  ^1  7s.  2d.  on  beer.  (Financial 
Relations  Commission,  Final  Report,  p.  183).  It  is  unnecessary  to 
attach  very  great  importance  to  the  returns  of  convictions  for 
drunkenness  ;  they  are  subject  to  considerable  variations,  according 
to  the  customs  of  each  country  and  the  zeal  of  the  police. 

7  In  1845  there  were  only  15,000  public-houses  for  8,295,061 
inhabitants,  or  1  for  550  inhabitants.  Cf.  the  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Liquor  Licensing,  1899.  In  the  United  Kingdom,  of 
course,  the  licensing  of  houses  is  in  the  hands  of  J.P's.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  some  of  them,  whether  from  favouritism  or  incapacity  to 
say  no,  grant  far  too  many  licences.  In  1905  there  were  24,1 19  licensed 
houses.     (V.  Ireland  Revenue  Returns,  1905). 


364  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

A  weakened  and  exhausted  race — this  is  the  ultimate 
conclusion  of  every  diagnosis  oi  Ireland's  maladies. 
This  is  the  ultimate  and  fatal  result  of  all  the  ordeals, 
all  the  losses,  whether  economic,  social  or  îacial,  which, 
during  the  last  hundred  years — not  to  go  further  into 
past  history — have  fallen  one  after  another  upon  her. 

What  are  the  symptoms  of  this  decadence  in  the  race  ? 
In  the  first  place  an  abnormal  and  extreme  reduction 
in  the  rate  of  births  (23  per  1,000)  and  of  marriages  (4.8 
per  1,000),  which  have  been  declining  evei  since  1865, 
when  the  first  statistics  were  drawn  up  (we  may  note  a 
slight  upward  tendency  duiing  the  last  few  years.8 

In  former  days  Ireland  was  renowned  for  numerous 
families  and  early  marriages.  English  economists, 
disciples  of  Malthus,  were  very  ready  to  attribute  Irish 
poverty  to  the  improvident  marriages  of  a  race  which 
has  always  shown  itself  prolific.  But  Ireland  now  has 
the  lowest  birth-rate  and  the  lowest  marriage-rate  in 
Europe.  In  these  respects  she  is  even  a  little  below 
France.  True,  the  death-rate  also  is  low  (18.2  per  1,000), 9 
but  it  shows  a  noticeable  upward  tendency  (the  rate 
was  only  16.7  in  1865).  The  annual  excess  of  births  over 
deaths,  wihch  in  England  stands  at  11.7,  and  in  Scotland 
at  11. 8  per  1,000,  in  Ireland  only  amounts  to  5.5  per 
1,000  of  the  population.10 

In  the  following  phenomenon  we  have  another  grave 
sign  of  racial  decadence  :  I  mean  the  marked  increase  of 
mental  disease  during  the  last  fifty  years.  In  185 1  Ireland 
had  5,074  lunatics  and   4,906   imbeciles  making  a  total 

8  Census,  1901.  General  Report,  p,  74.  Grimshaw,  op.  cit.  Table  I. 
A  birth-rate  of  23  per  1,000  is  ^iven  by  the  Census  for  the  years  1891- 
1901.  The  rate  for  1903  is  23.1,  and  for  1904  is  23.6  per  1,000.  This 
low  birth-rate  results  from  the  small  number  of  marriages  in  Ireland 
(a  result  of  emigration)  ;  for  the  marriages  are  more  fruitful  in  Ireland 
than  in  England.  Taking  the  year  1904,  if  we  divide  the  number  of 
births  by  that  of  marriages,  we  obtain  an  average  of  4.5,  in  England 
an  average  of  3.7,  and  in  Scotland  an  average  of  4.1.  (Statistical 
Abstract  for  the  United  Kingdom,  1905,  p.  286).  The  lowest  birth- 
rates in  Europe  are  : — 23.3  in  France  ;  28.6  in  Switzerland  ;  29.3  in 
Belgium. 

9  Census,  p.  74. 

10  Statistical  Abstract,  1905,  p.  286. 


THE  ECONOMIC  AND  FINANCIAL  SITUATION    365 

of  9,980  persons  of  unsound  mind,  or  1.52  per  1,000  of 
the  population.  In  1901  she  has  19,834  lunatics  and 
5,216  imbeciles,  or  a  total  of  no  less  than  25,050,  say  5.61 
per  1,000,  whereas  in  England  there  are  only  4.07,  and 
in  Scotland  4.53  per  i,ooo.u  Attempts  have  been  made 
to  discover  local  or  special  causes  for  the  sad  prevalance 
of  mental  disease.  Some  have  specified  alcohol,  or  the 
over-use  of  tea,  especially  tea  that  has  been  left  to  stew, 
according  to  the  custom  of  the  Irish  peasant.  Others 
denounce  the  dullness  of  life  in  the  pastoral  districts,  the 
isolation,  the  physical  inaction  and  intellectual  void 
amid  which  the  peasants  drag  out  their  lives  on  the 
cattle-breeding  latifundia.  And  here,  indeed,  we  have  a 
fact  worth  noting,  namely,  that  it  is  in  the  district  more 
especially  devoted  to  grazing,  namely,  Munster,  that 
the  percentage  of  the  mentally  unsound  reaches  its 
highest  level  (6.57  per  1,000).  The  counties  in  Ireland 
most  subject  to  the  scourge  are  Waterford,  Meath,  Clare, 
Kilkenny,  King's  County,  Tipperary,  Wexford,12  all  ot 
them  cattle-grazing  districts.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
the  towns,  Belfast,  Dublin,  and  Londonderry,  in  which 
the  smallest  proportion  of  mental  disease  is  to  be  found.1 3 
But  such  subsidiaiy  causes  as  these  cannot  overshadow 
the  true  fundamental  and  essential  cause,  namely,  the 
degeneration  of  the  race  caused  by  extreme  poverty  and 
emigration. 

Thus,  according  to  all  appearance,  Ireland  is  dying 
of  consumption  ;  she  is  already  condemned.  For  too 
many  years  she  has  been  "  bled  white  "  ;    the  germs    of 

n Census,  p.  46.  As  regards  physical  infirmities  and  defects,  Ireland 
is  also  in  a  far  worse  condition  than  Great  Britain.  Ireland  contains 
1,135  blind  people  per  million  inhabitants,  England  contains  809,  and, 
Scotland  695.  Ireland  contains  715  dear-mutes  per  million  inhabitants, 
England  489,  Scotland  528.  {Financial  Relations  Commission,  Evidence, 
II.,  p.  209,  210). 

12  Census,  p    46.      The  rate  varies  from  9.61  to  6.81  per  1,000. 

J3  Cf.  Lord  Dunraven,  The  Crisis  in  Ireland,  p.  6.  An  Anglo-Irish 
Protestant,  Mr.  Filson  Young,  author  of  Ireland  at  the  Cross-roads 
(London,  1904,  p.  117,  etc.),  believes  that  the  true  cause  of  the  increase 
in  mental  disease  is  Roman  Catholicism,  the  dominant  religion  in 
Ireland.  We  merely  quote  the  fact  in  order  to  show  how  far  prejudice 
may  carry  some  minds  in  anti-Celticism  and  anti-Catholicism. 


366  MATERIAL   DECADENCE 

the  disease  have  too  deeply  penetrated  her  system  for 
any  effectual  treatment  by  the  partial  and  insufficient 
measures  which  England  has  sought  to  apply  during 
the  last  thirty  years.  Agrarian  Reform,  Local  Govern- 
ment, and  like  palliatives  cannot  effectively  stay  the 
progress  of  the  evil  ;  they  merely  create  an  atmos- 
phere of  illusion.  According  to  all  appearance,  Ireland, 
in  so  far  as  she  is  the  Irish  nation,  distinct  from 
England,  must  die.  The  end  seems  to  be  near.  It  is 
now  only  a  matter  of  ye?rs,  or  even  days.  It  would  be 
possible  to  calculate  mathematically  the  date  when  the 
last  Irish  emigrant  will  take  his  departure  from  Ireland  ; 
when  the  Celt  will  have  vanished  from  Ireland,  and  the 
Emerald  Isle  will  at  last  have  become  English  ! 

These  would  be  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  an 
economist  who  had  only  studied,  as  we  have  hitherto 
only  studied,  the  material  and  external  phenomena  of 
the  social  organism  of  Ireland.  But  will  he  arrive  at 
the  same  conclusion  when  he  has  reached  the  stage,  not 
merely  of  examining  figures,  statistics,  and  Acts  of 
Parliament,  but  of  entering  into  moral  and  psychological 
forces  and  their  power  of  reaction  on  the  life  of  the 
nation  ?  On  this  point  we  shall  be  able  to  form  an  opinion 
when,  passing  beyond  the  statics,  we  have  in  the 
third  part  of  this  work  enquired  into  the  dynamics  of 
the  Irish  question. 


PART  III. 

POSSIBILITIES     OF 
REGENERATION 

CHAPTER   I.— THE  EDUCATION  QUESTION. 

In  social  life  material  facts  are  dominated  and  controlled 
by  moral  forces.  Indeed,  as  Matthew  Arnold  said  to  the 
Americans,  it  is  moral  forces  that  in  the  end  determine 
whether  a  nation  is  to  conquer  or  to  perish.  Nothing 
throws  so  much  light  on  our  subject  as  this  truth.  The 
Irish  question  is  to-day  above  all  a  question  of  mind  and 
character.  If  Ireland  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  in  a  condition  of  decadence,  the  true  reason  for  this, 
putting  aside  the  question  of  English  oppression,  is  the 
mental  and  moral  decadence  of  the  nation.  Imagine  the 
impossible.  Suppose  the  political  and  economic  grievances 
of  Ireland  to  be  suddenly  and  wholly  redressed.  Ireland 
is  still  lost,  if  she  does  not  re-make  her  soul.  Suppose 
inversely,  that  by  an  effort  from  within,  Ireland  should 
one  day  regain  her  spiritual  integrity  ;  on  that  day  she  is 
saved.  The  material  regeneration  of  Ireland  becomes 
possible  through  her  moral  or  rather  her  psychological 
regeneration  ;  it  is  indeed  possible  only  by  this  means  ; 
and  in  it  we  have  at  once  hope  and  a  future  open  to  the 
Irish. 

Ireland's  greatest  danger,  therefore,  lies  in  her  mental 


368  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

and  moral  decadence,  and  let  me  say  at  once  that  this 
decadence  is  to  a  great  extent  the  fruit  of  oppression.  I 
have  already  spoken  of  the  effect  which  the  Penal  Laws 
of  the  eighteenth  century  produced  on  Ireland.  Following 
as  they  did  upon  many  centuries  of  war  and  massacre, 
and  aided  in  all  their  work  by  emigration,  they  brought 
Ireland  to  a  state  of  extreme  exhaustion.  England 
thoroughly  understood  what  she  was  doing  ;  she  struck 
at  the  brain  of  Ireland  ;  "  demoralised  "  her,  sacked  and 
ruined  the  national  mind. 

The  fatalism,  the  lethargy,  the  moral  inertia  and 
intellectual  passivity,  the  general  absence  of  energy  and 
character,  of  method  and  discipline,  which  we  remark  in 
the  Ireland  of  to-day,  are  to  be  ascribed  to  this  cause. 
Psychologically  and  materially,  Ireland  has  seen  all  her 
worth  and  substance  drained  away,  until  nothing  of  any 
value  is  left  to  her.  I  have  also  noticed  how  the  effects 
of  the  Penal  Laws  have  been  perpetuated  until  the  present 
day  by  English  oppression,  by  the  land  system,  by 
commercial  subjection,  by  those  thousand  bonds  of  slavery 
which,  like  the  serpent  of  the  Laocoon,  encompass  and 
stifle  Ireland.  But  this  is  not  all.  Mental  and  moral 
slavery  has  been  perpetuated  in  yet  another  way,  that  is 
to  say,  by  means  of  one  of  the  worst  systems  of  education 
ever  devised  ;  a  system  so  bad  that  if  England  had  wished 
to  "  kill  Ireland's  soul  "  when  she  imposed  it  upon  the 
Sister  Isle,  she  could  not  have  discovered  a  better  means 
of  doing  so.  It  is  necessary  to  stop  here  for  a  moment 
in  order  to  show  by  an  examination  of  the  outlines  of  the 
Irish  system  of  education,  how  Ireland,  who  might  have 
found  her  salvation  in  her  schools,  has,  throughout  the 
nineteenth  century,  only  found  in  them  a  new  element  of 
decadence.  How  shall  I  describe  the  public  education  of 
Ireland  ?  *    A  university  system,  which  is  anti-national, 

1  On  the  subject  of  Irish  education  see  Cardinal  Perraud  op.  cit.  : 
II.  p.  305  et.  seq.  Graham  Balfour,  Educational  Systems  of  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  Oxford  1898.  Barry  O'Brien,  Fifty  Years  of 
Concessions  to  Ireland,  vol.  II.  passim.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission 
(Powis  Commission)  on  Irish  Primary  Education,    1870  (9  vols),  Report 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  369 

and  practically  closed  to  Catholics  ;  a  bad  primary  and  a 
worse  secondary  system  ;  no  single  central  and  competent 
authority,  but  independent  "  Boards  "  of  irresponsible 
amateurs  ;  an  education  which  forms  neither  intellect  nor 
character  ;  a  programme  of  instruction  almost  entirely 
mechanical  and  for  examination  purposes,  and  denuded, 
on  principle,  of  everything  that  would  make  for 
nationality  ;  little  or  no  disinterested  study  or  culture  ; 
and  finally,  a  public  opinion  which  manifests  but  little 
zeal  and  little  competence  in  educational  matters. 

First,  as  to  Primary  Education.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  national  and  Catholic  Ireland  had, 
in  spite  of  the  Penal  Laws,  succeeded  in  creating  a  number 
of  fairly  good  primary  and  secondary  schools,  either 
descendants  of  the  "  hedge-schools  "  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  or  the  work  of  religious  orders  lately  founded, 
such  as  the  Christian  Brothers,  the  Brothers  of  St.  Patrick, 
the  Sisters  of  Charity,  and  others2  These  schools  were, 
however,  quite  insufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  country, 
and  received  nothing  from  the  State,  which  had  under 
Elizabeth  and  James  I.  lavishly  endowed  the  Protestant 
proselytising  schools  with  which  Ireland  was  covered. 
The  State  still  subsidized   these  schools   liberally,3   but 

of  the  Recess  Committee,  1896.  Report  of  the  Belmore  Commission  on 
Manual  and  Practical  Instruction,  1898.  Report  of  the  Commission  on 
Intermediate  Education  in  Ireland,  1899.  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission 
on  University  Education  in  Ireland,  1903.  Two  Reports  by  Mr.  Dale, 
School  Inspector,  on  Primary  and  Secondary  Education  in  Ireland. 
1904.  Starkie,  Recent  Reforms  in  Irish  Education,  Dublin.  1902. 
{Cf.  Dr.  O'Riordan's  reply  to  this  pamphlet).  Cf.  F.  Hugh  O'Donnell's 
Ruin  of  Education  in  Ireland,  London,  1903.  See  also  the  Annual 
Reports  of  the  Board  of  National  Education,  the  Board  of  Intermediate 
Education.and  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction. 

2  In  many  of  these  schools  Latin  and  Greek  were  taught  ;  Ireland 
had  then  a  large  number  of  scholars  enjoying  a  great  local  reputation 
{Cf.  Balfour,  op.  :  cit.  :  p.  83).  The  Christian  Brothers'  Order  was 
founded  in  1802,  by  Ignatius  Rice,  for  the  purpose  of  giving  to 
the  children  of  the  poor  a  Catholic  education.  It  possesses  302  schools, 
both  primary  and  secondary,  with  30,000  pupils.  The  education  it- 
gives  is  the  best  to  be  had  in  Ireland.  The  Institute  of  the  Brothers  of 
Saint  Patrick  dates  from  1808. 

3  Elizabeth  in  1570  had  created  the  Diocesan  Free  Schools.  James 
I.  followed  her  example  and  founded  the  Royal  Free  Schools  in  Ulster 
in  1608.  The  Erasmus  Smith  Schools  were  established  in  the 
seventeenth  century  with  funds  bequeathed  by  a  Cromwellian.      All 

2  B 


370  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

their  ineffectiveness,  the  abuses  to  which  they  gave  rise, 
and  the  scandal  which  finally  attached  to  them,  at  length 
induced  the  British  Government  to  impose  upon  Ireland 
a  system  of  education  called,  no  doubt  ironically, 
"  national,"  a  foreign  system  opposed  to  the  aptitudes 
and  to  the  sentiments  of  the  nation.  Such  was  the  object 
of  the  Act  of  1831,  the  work  of  Stanley  (Lord  Derby), 
and  its  first  practical  result  was  the  disappearance  of  the 
greater  part  of  the  old  Catholic  Schools  of  Ireland. 

The  new  system  was  dominated  by  two  principles,  both 
of  which  are  inspired  by  those  doctrines  of  so-called 
"  liberalism  "  and  "  neutrality,"  which  England  rejected 
for  herself  and  yet  wished  to  impose  on  the  Sister  Isle. 
The  first  principle  is  that  the  schools  shall  be  "  mixed," 
that  is  to  say,  shall  be  attended  by  pupils  of  all 
denominations.  Very  soon,  however,  this  first  principle 
became  inoperative,  Presbyterians  and  Episcopalians 
refusing  to  be  bound  by  it  no  less  positively  than 
Catholics.4  Almost  everywhere  the  schools  organised 
themselves  according  to  distinct  denominations,  a  circum- 
stance which  has  led  to  an  excessive  multiplication  of 
small  and  inefficient  schools. 5  The  second  principle  is 
that  of  "  neutrality."  Religious  instruction  is  only  given 
outside  school  hours,  and  given  separately  to  members  of 
each  denomination.  This  second  principle  has  survived 
in  spite  of  the  check  sustained  by  the  first  ;  consequently, 
in  exclusively  Catholic  or  Protestant  schools  it  is  forbidden, 

these  schools,  richly  endowed,  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  reserved  for 
Protestants.  In  the  eighteenth  century  the  Protestants  began  to  aim 
directly  at  proselytising  Catholic  children  ;  with  this  object  the  Charter 
Schools  were  founded  in  1782,  and  still  enjoy  enormous  revenues. 
There  was  soon  an  efflorescence  of  proselytising  foundations  ;  schools 
belonging  to  the  Association  for  Discountenancing  Vice  (founded  in 
1800);  schools  of  the  London  Hibernian  Society  (founded  in  1805); 
and  schools  of  the  Kildare  Place  Society  (1811);  (these  last  working 
under  cover  of  a  fictitious  neutrality)  all  largely  subsidised  by  the 
Government.      (Cf.  Balfour,  op.  fit.  :    p.  82). 

4  Nowhere  is  the  separation  more  complete  than  in  Ulster.  Cf.  Mr. 
Dale's  Report  on  Primary  Education  pp.  34,  etc. 

5  The  schools  attended  by  both  Catholics  and  Protestants  number 
2,7Ô2,out  of  8,659  (Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  National  Education, 
for  1905-6,  p.  30).  The  multiplication  of  small  schools  has  been  favoured 
by  the  system  in  force  of  payment  of  teachers.    (Dale,  op.  cit.,  p.  4,  42). 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  371 

even  now,  to  teach  religion  in  school  hours,  to  read  the 
Bible,  or  to  hang  crosses  or  crucifixes  on  the  walls.  Be 
it  Protestant  or  Catholic  in  fact,  the  school  must  remain 
officially  neutral,  and  hence  we  find  on  the  part  of  the 
teachers  an  inclination  to  subterfuge  and  compromise, 
and  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  a  tendency  to  scepticism 
and  indifference.6 

Each  school  is  under  the  supervision  of  a  local 
administrator  or  "  manager."  In  Catholic  schools  he  is 
usually  the  priest,  the  only  well-informed  man  in  the 
village. 7  The  manager  administers  and  controls  the 
school,  and  appoints  or  dismisses  the  teachers.8  The 
State,  on  the  other  hand,  pays  either  all  or  a  part  of  the 
building  expenses,  and  all  the  teachers'  salaries.  9  In 
return,  it  regulates  the  instruction  given,  draws  up  the 
programmes,  arranges  the  methods  of  teaching,  controls 
the  books,  inspects  the  schools,  the  pupils,  and  the 
teachers.      The  State  ?      That  is  to  say,  the  Board  of 

b  Balfour,  op.  cit.  p.  92,  94  ;    cf.  p.  118. 

7  As  in  many  parts  of  England  {Cf.  Dale,  op.  cit.,  p.  45).    The  manage 
must  be  approved  by  the  Board ,  which  can  withdraw  its  approbation  in 
case  of  necessity  and  after  inquiry.      (Rule  No.  50).      The  manager  is 
not   a   "  director  "   with   adequate   powers,    but   an   "  administrator  " 
having  charge  of  the  general  management. 

8  The  teachers  may  also  be  dismissed  by  the  Board.  Only  laymen 
are  eligible.  There  are  about  12,000  teachers  of  primary  schools  in 
Ireland. 

9  The  State  only  gives  grants  for  the  building  of  schools  when  the 
sites  and  a  third  of  the  building  expenses  are  supplied  from  local  sources. 
It  formerly  insisted  that  it  should  be  recognised  as  legal  owner  of  the 
school,  but  now  permits  the  property  to  be  vested  in  trustees  approved 
by  it.  The  repairs  are  usually  paid  for  by  the  managers.  The  system 
of  the  payment  of  teachers  has  been  frequently  altered.  In  the  beginning 
the  teacher  received  the  school  fees,  plus  a  capitation  grant  paid  by 
the  State.  This  latter  was  replaced,  in  1841,  by  a  salary  varying 
according  to  certain  classes.  In  1872  "  results  fees  "  were  added  to 
the  fixed  payments,  these  fees  varying  according  to  results  at  examina- 
tions. In  1892  the  school  fees  were  suppressed.  Finally,  in  1900,  the 
remuneration  of  the  teacher  was  as  follows  : — Firstly,  a  salary  according 
to  rank  ;  secondly,  an  increase  according  to  seniority  ;  thirdly,  a  fixed 
sum  of  five  shillings  per  pupil  ;  fourthly,  fees  for  extra  subjects  taught 
outside  school  hours  or  at  evening  classes.  This  new  system  has  evoked 
complaints  from  the  teachers  to  the  effect  that  they  are  thereby  re- 
duced to  the  direst  poverty.  They  seem  to  me,  however,  to  be  well 
paid  in  comparison  with  their  French  colleagues.  But  the  career, 
certainly,  does  not  attract  many,  and  the  number  of  candidates  for  it 
is  diminishing. 


372        POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

National  Education,  sitting  in  Dublin,  and  composed  of 
twenty  unpaid  members,  nominated  by  the  Government. 
A  paid  Resident  Commissioner,  with  the  help  of  his 
Secretaries,  does  practically  all  the  work.10  Let  me  say 
finally,  that  there  are  at  present  in  Ireland  8,659  primary 
schools  working  under  the  Act  of  183 1,  and  under  the 
authority  of  the  Board,11  that  the  Board  spends  annually 
a  sum  of  about  £1,300,000  ;  and  that  there  are  also  a 
fairly  large  number  of  primary  schools,  independent  and 
ecclesiastical, — managed  by  the  Christian  Brothers,  by  the 
Presentation  Brothers  of  St.  Patrick,  or  by  nuns, — 
which  have  never  received  a  penny  from  the  State, 
are  therefore  free  from  control  by  the  Board,  and  have  a 
higher  standard  of  education  than  the  others. 

This  highly  specialised  organisation  does  not  work  well. 
The  authority  which  pays  has  power  only  to  make  rules, 
and  it  does  this  with  so  much  energy  that  it  loses  itself 
in  the  maze  of  its  own  rules  and  regulations.  It  draws 
up  detailed  programmes,  of  the  narrowest  and  most  rigid 
character,  all  based  on  English  ideas  and  blind  to 
National  idosyncracies,  and  all  inspired  by  the  aim 
expressed  by  Dr.  Whately,  one  of  the  first  Commissioners, 
of  making  every  Irish  pupil  a  "happy  English  child." 
The  history  of  Ireland  is  proscribed  ;  so  also  is  all  reference 

10  On  the  religious  wax  of  the  Board  of  National  Education,  see 
Perraud,  op.  cit.,  p.  325,  etc.  The  Board  usually  consists,  with  some 
ecclesiastics,  of  well-known  laymen,  judges,  Trinity  College  Professors, 
etc.     The  members  attend  the  meetings  very  irregularly. 

11  Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  National  Education  for  1905-6, 
p.  24.  In  this  number  are  comprised  some  30  Model  Schools,  managed 
by  the  Board  itself,  and  consequently  dependent  only  upon  it.  These 
schools  were  originally  founded  for  the  purpose  of  raising  the  standard 
of  education,  bringing  the  methods  of  teaching  to  perfection,  and 
training  the  teachers.  In  reality  the  education  given  in  them,  while  a 
little  better  than  that  of  the  average  so-called  National  Schools,  is 
inferior  to  that  given  by  the  free  schools  under  the  management  of 
monks  or  nuns.  They  cost  enormous  sums  and  are  only  used  by  the 
children  of  the  Protestant  lower  middle  classes,  whom  they  educate 
for  nothing.  The  Board's  extravagance  with  regard  to  these  Model 
Schools  is  in  singular  contrast  with  its  parsimony  towards  other  schools, 
and  consequently  Nationalist  opinion  in  Ireland  never  ceases  to  demand 
the  suppression  of  the  Model  Schools.  "  These  schools  are  almost  the 
worst  imposture  to  be  found  in  Ireland,"  said  Lord  Randolph  Churchill 
in  1884.     (Cf.  Dale's  Report,  p.  93,  etc.). 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  373 

to  Catholicism,  and  all  Irish  songs  I2 — a  strange  method 
of  attracting  children  to  school  !  There  is  nothing  to 
educate  either  eyes  or  hands  ;  it  is  only  necessary  for  a 
child  to  learn  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic.  All  such 
thing  as  object-lessons,  or  manual  and  practical  instruction 
are  ignored.^  The  children  ask  for  bread,  as  a  professor 
of  Trinity  College  said,  and  they  are  given  educational 
stones.  In  order  to  raise  the  level  of  instruction,  it  was 
arranged  in  1872  to  pay  at  least  some  of  the  teachers 
"  by  results,"  that  is  to  say,  by  the  results  of  examinations, 
a  system  which  England  herself  had  already  abandoned. 
This  system  has  tended  to  make  the  methods  of  teaching 
too  mechanical,  and  to  awaken  a  somewhat  mercenary 
inclination  on  the  part  of  the  teachers.^ 

One-half  *5  of  the  teachers  to-day  have  had  no  special 
education  for  their  profession  ;  and  the  training  supplied 
to  future  teachers  by  the  State  Training  Colleges,  or  even 
by  the  free  Training  Colleges  subsidised  by  the  State  since 
1883  is  poor  enough.16 

Finally,  education  is  not  compulsory,  except  in  certain 
towns  which  have  adopted  the  Act  of  1892,  an  Act  which 
provides  that  education  may  be  declared  obligatory 
by  the  local  authorities  in  boroughs  and  counties.1?     The 

12  See  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  97.  Dr.  Whately  had  erased  from  the 
lesson-books  the  quotation  :  "  Freedom  shrieked  as  Kosciusko  fell  " 
(lb.  p.  97).  I  shall  return  later  to  the  war  declared  by  the  National 
Board  on  the  Gaelic  language  and  national  history. 

13  The  Commission  of  1898  on  Manual  and  Practical  Instruction 
declares  (Report,  p.  6)  that  children  leave  the  primary  schools  incapable 
of  entering  technical  schools,  even  were  there  any  at  their  disposal. 
Cf.  Starkie,  Recent  Reforms  in  Irish  Education,  p.  18.  Dale's  Report, 
p.  91. 

J4  Starkie,  op.  cit.,  p.  12. 

IS  In  1883  only  a  third  of  the  teachers  had  received  any  special 
preparation;  in  1902  the  proportion  was  55  per  100.  Cf.  Balfour, 
op.  cit.,  p.  109.      Dale's  Report,  p.   17. 

Ib  The  State  maintains  two  Training  Colleges  at  Dublin,  with  the 
Model  Schools,  which  partly  serve  to  prepare  the  teachers.  On  the 
other  hand,  both  Catholics  and  Protestants  have  free  Training  Colleges, 
authorised  in  1883.  These  establishments  are  subsidised  by  the  Board, 
but  very  inadequately.      (Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  no). 

17  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  in,  etc.  In  86  towns  out  of  117,  and  in  15 
counties  out  of  32,  attendance  has  been  declared  obligatory,  and  School 
Attendance  Committees  have  been  formed,  but  the  action  of  these 
committees  is  very  feeble  and  scarcely  efficacious.  (Starkie,  op.  cit. 
P-  23). 


374         POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

average  attendance  at  school  is,  in  fact,  very  low  ;  it 
amounts  to  but  65  per  cent,  of  those  entered  on  the  school 
rolls,  as  against  83.9  per  cent,  in  England.18 

The  consequence  of  all  this  is,  that  the  child,  who,  as 
Wordsworth  says,  "  is  father  to  the  man,"  is  badly  formed, 
or  as  some  say,  positively  deformed  by  the  so-called 
National  Schools.  "  In  fifty  years,"  wrote  Colonel  Moore, 
a  short  time  ago,  "  they  have  turned  the  quickest  and 
most  intelligent  race  in  Europe  into  the  most  helpless  and 
the  most  useless."  19 

The  managers  throw  the  blame  on  the  Board,  that 
arbitrary,  anti-National,  and  incompetent  central 
authority  which  holds  the  purse  and  starves  the  schools. 
The  Board  retaliates  by  accusing  the  managers  of  negli- 
gence and  indifference  in  educational  matters,  and  of 
incapacity  in  the  exercise  of  powers  which  are  not 
accompanied  by  any  financial  responsibility.20  The 
proper  solution,  people  tell  you,  would  be  to  place 
educational  authority  and  financial  responsibility  in  the 
same  hands  ;  to  levy  local  rates  for  education,  and  above 
all,  to  establish  a  central  authority  which  would  have 
both  the  power  and  the  ability  needed  for  effective 
administration.  The  misfortune  is  that  such  an  authority 
would  be  anti-national,  and  thus  politically  and  religiously 
suspect,  so  long  as  Ireland  is  not  mistress  of  her  own 
government.  Whether  you  will  or  no,  politics  always 
re-appear  in  the  Cosas  de  Irlanda. 

We  next  turn  to  Secondary  Education.  Thirty  years 
ago  the  Catholics,  with  a  very  small  number  of  schools, 

*8  Dale's  Report,  p.  53.  Starkie  (op.  cit.  p.  21,  note  1)  gives  63*0  per 
100  in  Ireland  and  82.4  per  100  in  England.  Cf.  Census  of  1901.  General 
Report,  p.  70. 

19  Freeman's  Journal,  6th  February,  1903.  It  is  only  fair  to  say 
that  the  number  of  individuals  who  can  neither  read  nor  write  has 
gone  down  from  53  per  100  (in  1841)  to  14  per  100  (in  1901).  Census 
of  1901.      General  Report,  p.  57. 

20  See  the  above-mentioned  works  of  Starkie  and  O'Riordan.  The 
Parliamentary  Vote  in  aid  of  primary  education  is  most  assuredly 
insufficient  ;  statistics  prepared  in  1906  by  the  Irish  National  Teachers' 
Association  show  that  a  sum  of  7s.  4d.  per  inhabitant  is  given  for 
this  purpose  in  England,  7s.  7d.  in  Scotlard,  and  6s.    5d.  in  Ireland. 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  375 

none  of  which  were  subsidised  by  the  State,  were  unable 
to  compete  in  this  respect  with  the  Protestants,  who  had 
long  enjoyed  richly  endowed  secondary  schools.  These 
endowments  were  often  abused.  "  Quality  bad,  quantity 
insufficient,"  said  Lord  Cairns  in  1871  of  the  "  inter- 
mediate "  education  of  Ireland.  Out  of  a  population  of 
rive  and  a  half  millions,  only  10,814  young  people  were 
then  learning  either  living  or  dead  languages.  In  order 
to  remedy  this  state  of  affairs  a  sum  of  one  million  sterling 
was  granted  in  187 1  for  the  purposes .  of  secondary 
education.  This  sum  was  drawn  from  the  Church  Fund, 
which  had  accrued  from  the  Disestablishment  of  the 
Irish  Church.21  In  1878  a  Board  for  Intermediate 
Education  was  created,  analogous  to  the  National  Board, 
and  with  power  to  allocate  the  grants  (of  which  the 
annual  total  is  to-day  22  about  £60,000  per  year)  amongst 
existent  or  prospective  secondary  schools. 

These  schools,  now  fairly  numerous,  remain  private  and 
free.23  No  control  is  exercised  over  the  use  made  of  the 
grants  ;  a  system  of  academic  inspection  was  organised 
only  in  1903,  and  it  is  even  now  very  incomplete.  In  the 
Catholic  schools  the  masters  are  almost  all  ecclesiastics — 
laymen  are  more  exacting  in  pecuniary  matters — and 
these  ecclesiastics  have  often  a  very  insufficient  classical 
and  scientific  training  for  their  educational  functions. 24 
A  third  point  :  the  grants  are  in  proportion  to  the  results 
obtained  by  each  establishment  at  the  annual  examina- 
tions ;  consequently,  the  instruction  given  is  even  more 
mechanical,  artificial  and  coloured  by  mercenary  interests 

21  See  later. 

22  £57.98~  in    !904  {Report  of  Intermediate   Board  for    1904,  p.    18). 

23  The  same  report  mentions  275  secondary  schools  as  sending  up 
8,530  pupils  to  the  examinations  (1904).  The  schools  are,  in  general, 
too  numerous,  and  consequently  of  too  little  importance  separately. 
The  Board  of  Education  sits  in  Dublin,  and  consists  of  12  members 
who  give  their  services  for  nothing. 

24  This  was  the  evidence  of  Dr.  O'Dwyer,  Bishop  of  Limerick,  before 
the  Commission  on  University  Education  in  Ireland  in  1901  (Appendix 
to  First  Report,  p.  21).  He  was  speaking  more  especially  of  diocesan 
schools  or  seminaries  ;  the  standard  of  the  schools  kept  by  religious 
orders  is  far  higher.  Hardly  ten  per  cent,  of  the  teachers  in  secondary 
schools  have  university  degrees.      (Starkie,  op.  cit.,  p.  29). 


376  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

than  in  the  primary  schools.  25  Herein  lies  the  triumph 
of  "  cramming."  If  there  are  in  Ireland  some  schools  in 
which  conscientious  school  training  is  held  in  honour, 
there  are  also  too  many  charlatan  and  cramming 
institutions,  where  the  pupils  are  merely  stuffed  up  with 
a  view  to  examinations.  Neither  memory  nor  intelligence 
is  cultivated.  Not  men,  but  parrots,  are  produced.26 
Moreover,  one  result  is  an  "  academical  proletariat,"  that 
is  to  say,  an  army  of  H  linger  kandidaten,  who,  for  want  of 
a  proper  system  of  higher  education,  are  condemned  to 
remain  among  the  unclassed. 

Higher  education — the  keystone  of  every  educational 
system — in  fact  either  does  not  exist,  or  is  at  least  all  but 
inaccessible  to  the  majority  of  the  nation,  that  is  to  say, 
to  Catholics  who  remain  loyal  to  their  religion,  and 
Nationalists  who  remain  loyal  to  their  country.  "  We 
have  plenty  of  so-called  universities  in  this  country," 
Dr.  Hyde  (a  Protestant),  has  said,  "  but  we  have  none 
that  meets  our  wants."  27 

There  is  first  of  all  Trinity  College,  that  great  and 
celebrated  Dublin  University,  rendered  illustrious  by  so 
many  famous  names,  Archbishops  Ussher  and  Bedell, 
Burke  and  Grattan,  the  poet  Moore  and  the  great  historian 
Lecky.      Founded  by  Elizabeth  in  159 1  28  in  the  very 

25  There  was  not  long  since  something  analogous  to  this  in  the  English 
public  schools  :  see  Matthew  Arnold,  Irish  Essays,  London  1882, 
p.  90-91. 

20  See  the  Report  and  the  Evidence  of  the  Commission  on  Intermediate 
Education,  Dublin,  1899.  Cf.  Starkie,  op.  cit.,  p.  24-25  It  is 
impossible  to  imagine  how  far  this  cramming,  now  soon  to  disappear, 
was  formerly  carried  ;  it  is  said  that  French  translation  consisted  in 
learning  by  heart  the  English  translation,  after  which  the!  teacher 
taught  the  children  to  distinguish  the  corresponding  phrases  in  the 
texts,  the  words  in  each  phrase,  etc. 

27  Evidence  before  the  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education 
in  Ireland  (1901-1903).  Appendix  to  the  Third  Report  p.  314.  The 
Report  issued  by  this  Commission,  and  the  evidence  collected  by  it, 
are  both  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  study  of  higher  education 
in  Ireland.  Cf.  on  the  same  subject  the  following  works  : — Most  Rev. 
Dr.  Walsh,  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  The  Irish  University  Question, 
Dublin,  1890,  and  Irish  University  Question  :  The  Catholic  Case, 
Dublin,  1897. 

28  See  the  History  of  Dublin  University,  by  Reverend  Dr.  Stubbs, 
Dublin,    1889.      The   Constitutional  History  of  the  University  of  Dublin 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  377 

centre  of  the  City  of  Dublin,  on  a  site  confiscated  from  a 
monastery  ;  endowed  from  the  start  with  large  tracts  of 
land,  also  confiscated  from  the  Irish,  Trinity  College  has 
since  seen  its  resources  increased  by  means  of  frequent 
grants  and  donations  from  the  State,  until  to-day 
it  is  reputed  to  be  the  richest  college  in  Europe  ;  its  net 
revenue,  independently  of  students'  fees,  is  about  £45,000 
per  annum. 29  It  possesses  about  one  thousand  students3o 
of  whom  only  a  small  number,  contrary  to  the  custom  in 
English  universities,  reside  within  the  walls.  It  is  governed 
by  a  Provost,  assisted  by  seven  Senior  Fellows. 31  But 
for  an  Irishman  and  a  Catholic,  what  is  this  old  university 
of  which  even  the  alumni  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
speak  with  contempt  as  "  our  silent  sister  ?"      It  is  a 

by  D.  C.  Heron,  Dublin,  1847.  An  Epoch  in  Irish  History  :  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  its  foundation  and  early  fortunes,  by  J.  P.  Mahaffy, 
London,  1903.  See  the  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  the 
University  of  Dublin  and  Trinity  College  (President,  Archbishop 
Whately),  1853.  See  also  the  Report  recently  published  by  the  Royal 
Commission  on  Trinity  College  and  Dublin  University,  1906.  See  also 
Rev.  J.  F.  Hogan,  Irish  Catholics  and  Trinity  College.  Dublin,  1906. 
Trinity  College  must  not  be  confounded  with  Dublin  University,  of  which 
Trinity  College  has  always  remained  the  only  constituent  college  (see 
Trinity  College  and  the  University  of  Dublin,  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Dublin  ;  Dublin,  1902).  Both  were  founded  by  the  same  Charter  in 
1 59 1,  and  up  to  the  present  they  have  remained  indissolubly  united  ; 
one  of  the  solutions  to  the  Irish  University  Question  (a  solution 
energetically  opposed  by  Trinity  College)  would  be  the  constitution, 
within  Dublin  University,  of  a  second  College  acceptable  to  Catholics. 
The  Charter  of  Elizabeth  was  modified  by  Charles  I.  in  1637,  and 
more  recently  in  185 5,  as  the  result  of  an  inquiry  by  a  Royal  Commission. 

29  Figures  given  by  Dr.  Anthony  Traill,  now  Provost  of  Trinity 
College,  before  the  University  Commission  of  1904.  {Appendix  to  the 
Third  Report,  p.  208).  Until  recently,  Trinity  College  was  either  direct 
or  head  landlord  of  almost  200,000  acres  of  Irish  land,  and  was  also 
said  to  have  been  a  very  hard  landlord  to  the  tenants.  (One  of  the 
worst  struggles  in  the  time  of  the  land  war  took  place  on  the  estate 
of  Trinity  College  in  County  Kerry).  The  Land  Act  of  1903  gave 
Trinity  College  an  annual  sum  of  ^5,000  out  of  the  Irish  Development 
Grant  as  compensation  for  eventual  losses  on  the  sale  of  her  agrarian 
rights.    Trinity  College  does  not  publish  financial  accounts. 

30  In  1901  there  were  976.  (Census,  General  Report,  p.  65).  The 
number  of  students  is  diminishing.  There  were  1,338  in  1881,  and 
1,162  in  1891  (lb.). 

31  Dublin  University,  on  the  other  hand,  is  governed  by  a  Lord 
Chancellor,  a  Vice-Chancellor,  and  an  elected  Board  (this  last  instituted 
in  1874).  The  "Senate"  comprises  all  the  Doctors  and  Masters  of 
the  University,  under  the  Presidency  of  the  Chancellor.  Trinity  College 
has,  besides  the  Senior  Fellows,  24  Junior  Fellows  (incorporated). 
Cf.  Graham  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  278. 


378  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

foreign  institution,  imported  by  England  for  the  use  of 
the  garrison,  and  remaining  exclusively  suited  to  the  uses 
of  this  garrison.  It  is  an  official  and  professional 
establishment,  with  a  narrow  and  utilitarian  spirit, 
principally  employed  in  the  training  of  lawyers,  doctors, 
Protestant  clergymen  and  civil  servants  ;  an  establishment 
in  which  genuine  thought  and  disinterested  science  are, 
no  doubt,  honoured,  but  in  which  they  are  certainly  but 
little  taught.  Hence  the  Anglo-Irish  gentry  often  prefer 
to  send  their  sons  to  Oxford  or  Cambridge  instead  of  to 
Dublin  University.  It  is  an  establishment  with  a 
Protestant  atmosphere  and  spirit,  which  calls  itself  non- 
sectarian32  and  boasts  that  it  was  the  first  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  world  to  open  its  doors  to  Catholics  and 
Nonconformists.  Yet  it  was  not  till  1873  that  it  admitted 
non-Anglicans  to  Scholarships  and  Fellowships. 33  More- 
over, it  merely  made  a  show  of  liberalism  when  its 
Protestant  traditions  were  well  established  and  indestruc- 
tible, and  it  is  only  open  in  theory  to  the  Catholics,  as 
are  their  old  churches  which  were  taken  from  them  at 
the  Reformation  and  given  over  to  the  Protestants. 
Trinity  College  has  been  little  frequented  by  the 
Catholics  since  1875,  when  it  was  declared  dangerous  to 
faith  and  morals  by  the  Synod  of  Maynooth. 

It  is  a  definitely  anti-Irish  establishment,  separated 
from  the  rest  of  Ireland  as  if  by  the  Great  Wall  of  China. 
It  has  never  exercised  any  influence  on  the  country, 
except  by  means  of  reaction  or   "  repulsion  "  ;34    it  is 

i2  Within  Trinity  College  there  is  a  Divinity  School  where  the 
clergymen  of  the  Church  of  Ireland  are  educated.  The  present  Provost, 
Dr.  Traill,  is  a  notorious  anti-Catholic,  as  was  his  predecessor,  Dr. 
Salmon  (see  the  latter's  book  on  the  Infallibility  of  the  Church). 

33  Since  1792  all  religious  tests  at  the  enrolment  of  students  have 
been  abolished,  but  they  were  still  compulsory  on  all  Scholars  and 
Fellows,  these  latter  being,  moreover,  generally  in  orders.  In  1840, 
celibacy  ceased  to  be  compulsory  on  the  Fellows.  Finally,  in  1873, 
all  religious  tests  (except  for  the  Chair  of  Divinity)  were  abolished. 
(See  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  294-277). 

34  An  expression  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett's.  (Ireland  in  the  New 
Century,  London,  1904,  p.  137).  Note  the  number  of  Irishmen  educated 
at  Trinity  College  who  rebelled  against  this  spirit  :  Swift,  Grattan, 
Wolfe  Tone,  Robert  Emmet,  Thomas  Davis,  John  Mitchel. 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  379 

hostile  to  National  ideas,  to  the  Irish  spirit,  to  the  history 
of  Ireland,  and,  even  to  those  Celtic  studies  in  which  it 
should  have  taken  a  leading  part.35  Isolated  in  its 
grandeur  as  in  that  decadence  which  it  shares  to-day  with 
the  Irish  Ascendancy,  and  with  the  Anglican  Church  of 
Ireland,  it  can  never  hope  to  rise  from  its  present  condition 
until  it  learns  how  to  become  a  part  of  the  country,  and 
to  renew  and  refresh  itself  at  the  sources  of  the  nation's 
life.36 

Is  it  thus  extraordinary  that  Trinity  College  is  so  little 
frequented  by  young  men  who  have  remained  faithful  to 
the  political  and  religious  faith  of  Ireland  ?  And,  on  the 
other  hand,  can  one  reasonably  call  the  two  Queen's 
Colleges  of  Cork  and  Galway  centres  of  University 
Education  ?  For  the  third  Queen's  College,  the  only  one 
that  shows  any  vitality,  is  practically  reserved  for  the 
Presbyterian  students  of  Ulster.  Founded  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel  in  1845,  these  establishments  were  in  1850  incor- 
porated into  the  Queen's  University,  with  authority  to 
grant  degrees  to  students  attending  in  the  three  colleges. 37 
Thus,  without  interfering  with  Trinity  College  (an 
institution  fundamentally  connected  with  the  Union)  Peel 
had  wished  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  the  country  by  providing 
a  University  Education  open  to  all  ideas  and  to  all  men, 
that  is  to  say,  absolutely  secular,  or  rather  agnostic. 
Even  the  Protestants  hastened  to  call  it  "  godless." 
England  upholds  denominational  education  for  herself. 
But  why  should  not  a  purely  secular  education  be  quite 
good  enough  for  Ireland  ?      In  reality  Ireland  has  never 

35  Trinity  College  possesses  admirable  Irish  manuscripts,  and  has 
never  done  anything  to  make  them  useful. 

3t>  Remark  that  there  is  at  present  at  Trinity  College  an  increasing 
nucleus  of  young  Nationalists  in  the  largest  sense  of  the  word.  The 
separatist  United  Irishman  has  come  to  be  read  there  of  late. 

37  The  three  Colleges  opened  their  doors  in  1849.  Each  received  the 
necessary  funds  for  the  acquisition  of  land  and  the  construction  of 
buildings,  plus  an  annual  income  of  /7,00c  from  the  Consolidated 
Fund.  Boarding-houses  for  the  accommodation  of  the  students  are 
approved  of  by  the  authorities  of  each  College.  Each  College  is  governed 
by  a  President  and  by  a  Council  composed  of  six  members  elected  by 
the  teaching  staff.  (See  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  282,  etc.).  Report  of  Royal 
Commission  on  University  Education  in  Ireland.  Dublin,  1903,  p.  10,  etc. 


33o         POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

had  any  desire  for  the  secular  solution  ;  the  majority  of 
Irishmen  did  not  want  the  Queen's  Colleges  ;  and  at  the 
Synod  of  Thurles  in  1850  the  Catholic  Church  forbade 
priests  to  attend  them,  and  advised  laymen  not  to  do 
so. 38  Since  that  date  the  two  Colleges  at  Cork  and 
Galway,  lacking  means,  masters  and  students,  have  had 
great  difficulty  in  maintaining  their  existence. 39  At  the 
same  time  they  suffered  another  defeat  through  the 
creation  of  the  Catholic  University.  In  1850  the  Irish 
Episcopate  decided,  with  a  Papal  Charter,  to  establish  this 
University  in  Dublin  on  the  model  of  the  University  of 
Louvain.  It  opened  auspiciously  in  1854,  under  the  govern- 
ment of  a  body  of  Bishops,40  and  with  the  future  Cardinal 
Newman  as  Rector.  But  it  was  doomed  in  advance. 
Want  of  money  (for  the  country  was  too  poor,  and  the 
State  refused  to  grant  any  subsidy),  want  of  students 
(secondary  education  not  having  been  developed), 41  want 
of  adequate  powers  (more  especially  of  the  power  of 
conferring  degrees)  combined  to  bring  it  to  an  early  end. 
Yet  some  part  of  it  still  remains,  namely,  that  splendid 
Catholic  institution^  University  College,  Dublin,  which 
inherited  the  buildings  formerly  belonging  to  the  Catholic 

38  See  later. 

39  In  1901  Belfast  College  had  354  students  ;  Cork,  171  ;  Galway 
97.  (Census,  General  Report,  p.  65).  Out  of  a  total  of  622  students, 
there  are  only  1 59  Catholics.  Queen's  College,  Cork,  is  little  more  than 
a  School  of  Medicine.      (Cf.  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  284). 

4°  From  185 1  to  1865  voluntary  subscriptions,  to  the  amount  of 
£125,000  were  received  for  the  Catholic  University  ;  from  1865  to  1874 
an  additional  £59,000.  It  was  there  that  Newman  delivered  his 
celebrated  lectures  on  the  Idea  of  a  University.  The  teaching  staff 
included  scholars  of  the  rirst  rank,  such  as  Eugene  O'Curry,  the  great 
archaeologist  and  Celtic  student  ;  the  jurist,  John  O'Hagan  ;  the 
savant,  W.  K.  Sullivan.  The  great  theological  College  of  Maynooth, 
University  College,  Dublin,  and  the  Cecilia  Street  School  of  Medicine, 
were  also  incorporated  with  the  University.  I  may  add  that  nominally 
the  Catholic  University  of  Ireland  still  exists  to-day. 

41  Secondary  Education  was  not  developed  until  after  1878. 

42  Also  that  excellent  Catholic  School  of  Medicine  (Cecilia  Street)  with 
about  250  students,  who  pass  their  examinations  either  at  the  College 
of  Physicians  or  at  the  Royal  University  (University,  Commission 
Report,  p.  15-16).  University  College,  the  property  of  the  Episcopate, 
has  been  handed  over  to  the  management  of  the  Jesuits  :  it  is  governed 
by  a  President  and  Council  of  six  members  elected  by  the  College 
staff  ;    (out  of  these  six  members  five  are  laymen).      There  are  fifteen 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  381 

University  of  Ireland.  Despite  the  absence  of  any 
endowment  other  than  private,  and  the  want  of  suitable 
premises,  and  adequate  libraries  and  laboratories,  this 
College,  under  the  management  of  the  Jesuits,  gives  an 
excellent  Arts  education  to  a  body  of  nearly  two 
hundred  students.  i\.t  the  annual  examinations  of  the 
Royal  University  of  Ireland  the  students  of  University 
College  show  great  superiority  over  their  competitors  from 
the  Queen's  Colleges.  This  Royal  University,43  a  non- 
teaching  body,  replaced  the  old  Queen's  University  in 
1879.  It  passes  through  its  hands,  at  degree  and  other 
examinations,  without  any  qualification  of  residence  in 
the  University,  an  average  of  about  eighteen  hundred 
students  every  year. 

All  this,  however,  is  very  far  from  providing  adequate 
or  acceptable  machinery  for  bringing  out  the  best 
intellectual  faculties  of  the  three  millions  and  a  half  who 
to-day  constitute  Catholic  and  Nationalist  Ireland.  This 
latter  wishes  to  educate  herself,  and  to  do  so  in  her  own, 
and  not  in  England's,  way.      She  protests  against  the 

recognised  professors,  of  whom  ten  are  laymen.  All  these  professors 
are  Fellows  of  the  Royal  University,  and  in  this  capacity  are  paid  at 
the  rate  of  £400  per  annum  ;  consequently,  University  College  is 
indirectly  subsidised  by  the  State  to  the  extent  of  £6,000  per  year. 
In  1896-97,  there  were  130  students  ;  in  1 901 -1902,  181.  (See  Balfour 
op.  cit.,  p.  289,  etc.).  University  Commission  Report,  p.  14,  etc.  lb. 
Appendix  to  the  First  Report,  p.  75,  etc.,  and  Appendix  to  the  Third 
Report,  p.  359,  etc.). 

3  The  Royal  University  of  Ireland  receives  £20,000  yearly  out  of 
the  Church  Fund  arising  from  the  Disestablishment  of  the  Irish  Church, 
and  also  receives  the  candidates'  fees.  (See  University  Commission, 
Appendix  to  First  Report,  p.  288).  It  is  managed  by  a  Chancellor  and 
a  Senate  composed  of  36  members,  half  Protestants  and  half  Catholics, 
thirty  members  being  chosen  by  the  State  and  six  by  the  Graduates. 
The  Senate  elects  32  Fellows  or  assistant  professors,  who  retain  their 
posts  for  seven  years,  with  an  annual  salar}^  of  £400,  and  who  must 
lecture  in  a  college  approved  of  by  the  Senate.  (Half  are  Catholics  and 
half  Protestants).  In  1890,  there  were  1,803  candidates  for  the 
examinations  ;  in  1901  1,779  (of  whom  399  were  women).  {Cf.  Balfour, 
op.  cit.,  p.  283,  etc.).  University  Commission  Report,  p.  4,  etc.  This 
complicated  organisation  has  had  no  great  success.  Being  only  an 
examining  body,  the  Royal  University  has  had  no  influence  either  on 
learning  or  on  the  country  ;  it  has  all  the  less  on  account  of  the 
factitious  equilibrium  maintained  between  the  two  great  religious 
creeds.  There  is  a  want  of  cohesion  and  of  harmony  ;  the  whole  scheme 
is  very  artificial  and  creates  an  inferior  intellectual  standard.  Cf. 
University  Commission  Report,  p.  58,  i,  2  and  3). 


382  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

Protestant  and  Anglo-Saxon  monopoly  of  Higher  Educa- 
tion, asks  for  educational  equality,  and  claims  that  the 
State  should  establish  a  centre  of  Higher  Education  which 
shall  not  be  anti-Catholic  and  anti-National,  or  if  one 
prefers  to  put  it  in  that  way,  shall  be  Catholic  and  National 
in  the  same  way  that  Trinity  College  is  English  and 
Protestant.44 

From  1870  onwards45  there  has  been  incessant  agitation 
on  the  question  of  higher  education  in  Ireland.  Each 
year  the  Irish  claims  are  brought  before  Parliament  and 
the  public,  and  each  year  they  are  supported  by  some 
broad-minded  Protestants  in  Ireland  ;  for  instance,  bv 
the  late  Mr.  Lecky,  the  historian,  member  for  Trinity 
College,  and  by  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  and  in  England  by 
politicians  of  such  different  shades  of  opinion  as  Mr.  John 
Morley,  the  Radical  Minister,  and  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour, 
the  leader  of  the  Conservative  Party.  In  1901-1902,  a 
Commission  of  Inquiry,  composed  almost  entirely  of 
Protestants,  came  over  to  study  the  question  once  more.46 

4  What  is  wanted  is  a  system  putting  Catholics  and  Nationalists  on 
the  same  footing  with  Anglo-Saxons  and  Protestants  as  regards  higher 
education  ;  there  is  no  sine  qua  non  attached  to  any  one  plan.  The 
different  possible  solutions  are  :— First,  the  creation  of  a  Catholic 
University-  ;  or  secondly,  the  creation  of  a  Catholic  College  parallel  with 
Trinity  College  and  within  the  University  of  Dublin,  or  under  the 
Royal  University.  Others  say — let  the  Catholics,  after  having  obtained 
a  few  easily  won  concessions,  crowd  into  Trinity  College,  and  convert 
it  into  a  National  University.  This  plan,  occasionally  praised  even 
by  the  priests,  would  seem  the  simplest,  but  unfortunately  the  time 
for  it  is  past.  It  should  have  been  executed  sixty  years  ago  ;  to-day 
the  Protestant  and  anti- Irish  spirit  is  too  firmly  rooted  in  Trinity 
College.  Finally,  there  is  the  solution  of  the  Irish  University  Question 
suggested  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  1S73.  The  University  of  Dublin  was  to 
admit,  on  an  equality  with  Trinity  College,  the  Queen's  Colleges  of 
Cork  and  Belfast,  the  Catholic  University  of  Dublin,  and  the 
Presbyterian  Magee  College  at  Londonderry.  This  new  or  enlarged 
University  was  not  to  touch  on  controversial  questions  in  history  and 
philosophv  ;  no  endowment  was  offered  to  the  Catholic  University. 
This  project,  which  was  satisfactory  to  no  party7,  was  rejected  by  the 
House  of  Commons  on  the  third  reading.  (Cf.  Balfour,  op.  cit.,  p.  278). 
rS  In  that  year  a  petition,  signed  by  over  a  thousand  laymen,  and 
asking  for  a  University"  education  accessible  to  Catholics,  was  presented 
to  the  Prime  Minister.  (See  University  Commission,  Appendix  to  First 
Report,  p.  289). 

4&  The  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education  in  Ireland, 
presided  over  by  Lord  Robertson,  met  in  September,  1901,  and,  after 
numerous  enquiries  made  in  Ireland  (see    the    3    vols,    of     Evidence 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  383 

Evidence  was  given  as  to  all  the  evils  that  the  country 
suffers  from  for  want  of  higher  education,  evils  not  onlv 
intellectual  and  educational,  but  social,  economic  and 
political.47  The  Commission  published  a  report  favourable 
to  Ireland,  but  no  result  followed.  The  Conservative 
Government  was  afraid  of  the  uncompromising  opposition 
of  the  Orangemen  of  Ireland  and  the  Dissenters  of  England 
to  the  Irish  claims.  Subsidise  Papistry,  Superstition, 
Ultramontanism  ?  Never  !  The  Roman  CathoMc  clergv 
in  Ireland  are  already  powerful  enough  !  Besides, 
everyone  knows  that  Catholics  are  necessarily  incapable 
of  independent  thought  in  the  realms  of  learning  and 
science  !  Recently  (1906)  a  new  Commission  was  appointed 
by  the  Liberal  Government  to  examine  into  the 
condition  of  Trinity  College,  a  task  which  the  previous 
Commission    had    not    been    permitted    to     undertake. 

heard),  published  a  Report,  dated  28th  February,  1903.  Trinity  College, 
knowing  herself  in  danger,  had  succeeded  in  having  herself  excluded 
from  the  enquiry,  which  was  thus  in  a  sense  incomplete.  The  Report 
formulates  just  criticisms  against  the  existing  system  of  highei  education 
in  Ireland,  recognises  the  insufficiency  of  the  University  education  open 
to  Catholics,  and  proposes  to  convert  the  Royal  University  into  a 
teaching  body  to  which  would  be  affiliated  the  three  Queen's  Colleger 
and  University  College,  Dublin,  this  last  being  subsidised  by  the  State  ; 
this  is  not  the  "  equality  "  demanded  by  Ireland,  the  equality  between 
Catholics  and  Protestants,  between  Irish  and  Anglo-Saxons.  A  short 
time  after  the  publication  of  this  Report,  a  plan,  suggested  by  Lord 
Dunraven,  was  agreed  upon  by  the  Castle  and  the  Bishops.  A  Catholic 
College,  parallel  to  Trinity  College,  was  to  be  created  within  the 
University  of  Dublin.  Here  was  true  equality,  but  a  veto  from  the 
Orangemen  was  sufficient  to  make  the  Government  retreat,  and  the 
project  was  shelved. 

47  See  especially  the  evidence  of  Dr.  O'Dwyer,  Bishop  of  Limerick 
(Evidence,  Appendix  to  the  First  Report,  p.  12-59).  There  is  no  better 
exposition  of  the  consequences  of  the  absence  of  higher  education 
upon  the  general  standard  of  intellectual  culture,  on  the  insufficient 
training  of  the  teachers  in  primary  and  secondary  schools,  on  the 
difficulties  which  beset  the  formation  of  a  middle  class,  and  on  the 
incompetency  of  the  majority  of  politicians  in  Ireland.  Mr.  John 
Morley,  when  Chief  Secretary,  had  already,  speaking  (1S93)  °f  the 
appointment  of  Government  officials,  remarked  upon  the  inferiority  of 
Irish  Catholics  owing  to  their  lack  of  higher  education.  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett  has  shown  what  an  enormous  help  the  existence  of  such  an 
education,  if  national,  would  be  in  forwarding  economic  and  social 
progress.  He  has  clearly  shown  how  the  higher  education  of  Catholics, 
far  from  increasing  the  influence  of  the  Church,  would,  in  reality,  tend 
to  diminish  the  temporal  power  of  the  Irish  priesthood.  (Appendix 
to  the  Third  Report,  p.  231,  etc.). 


384  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

The  Report  advised  firstly,  the  reform  of  this  institution 
from  within,  and  secondly,  the  creation  in  Dublin  48 
of  a  new  centre  of  higher  education.  At  last  it 
seemed  as  if  the  Liberal  Government  had  decided  to 
act.  A  Bill  designed  to  meet  the  claims  of  Ireland  with 
regard  to  University  education  was  foreshadowed  in  the 
Speech  from  the  Throne,  at  the  beginning  of  1907.49 
Will  it  have  any  result  ?  England  has  established  a 
University  for  the  Hindoos  in  India,  and  one  for  the 
Mahometans  at  Khartoum.  Will  she  ever  establish  in 
Ireland  a  University  for  the  Irish  ? 

It  should  be  evident  by  this  time  to  what  an  extent 
the  Irish  system  of  education,  a  system  so  absolutely 
inadequate,  so  antiquated  and  so  little  adapted  to  the 
needs  of  the  country,  has  fostered  the  national  decadence 
and  the  mental  and  moral  slavery  and  paralysis  of  Ireland. 
And  yet  it  is  undoubtedly  in  the  discipline,  training  and 
stimulus  of  her  schools  that  Ireland  might  expect  to  find 
her  salvation.  Her  intellectual  resources  have  been  no 
less  neglected  than  her  natural  wealth,  and  education 
alone  can  develop  them.  Ireland  needs  a  moral  and 
psychological  emancipation  to  complete  the  civil  and 
religious    emancipation    of    1829.        Should   not    this    be 

48  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  January 
1 8th,  1907.  This  Commission,  presided  over  by  Sir  Edward  Fry, 
consisted  of  nine  members,  amongst  whom  were  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde, 
Chief  Baron  Palles,  etc.  As  regards  Trinity  College,  it  was  proposed 
to  hand  over  the  management  of  that  institution  (at  present  in  the 
hands  of  the  Provost  and  Senior  Fellows),  to  a  Governing  Body,  the 
majority  of  whose  members  would  be  elected  by  the  Fellows  or  by 
other  College  Professors.  As  to  the  new  College  to  be  established  in 
Dublin,  five  members  of  the  Commission  (including  Dr.  Hyde)  proposed 
incorporating  it  and  the  three  Queen's  Colleges  within  the  University 
of  Dublin,  and  side  by  side  with  Trinity  College.  Three  other  Commis- 
sioners suggested  incorporating  the  three  Queen's  Colleges  and  the  new 
College  within  the  Royal  University. 

49  12th  February,  1907.  It  was  said  that  the  idea  of  the  Government 
was  to  establish  a  new  College  in  Dublin  ;  a  College  which,  though 
free  from  all  religious  tests,  should  be  in  practice  assigned  to  Catholics, 
the  Anglicans  having  Trinity  College,  and  the  Presbyterians  Queen's 
College,  Belfast.  This  College  was  to  be  incorporated  in  Dublin 
University,  which  latter  proposal  was  naturally  strongly  opposed  by 
theTrepresentatives  of  Trinity  College.  The  Queen's  Colleges  of  Belfast 
and  Cork  would  also  be  incorporated,  and  Queen's  College,  Galway, 
and  the  Royal  University,  would  disappear. 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  385 

required  from  her  schools  ?  For  over  a  century  the 
movement  in  Ireland  has  been  towards  a  responsible  and 
individualistic  democracy  ;  is  it  not  the  function  of  the 
schools  to  form  the  individual  and  teach  him  his 
responsibilities  ?  After  all,  what  is  the  Irish  Question  if 
it  is  not  a  question  of  national  education  ?  This  was 
foreseen  by  the  noble  minds  of  "  Young  Ireland  "  sixty 
years  ago.  Thomas  Davis  and  his  friends,  seeing  in 
education  a  condition  and  a  necessity  of  all  progress, 
never  ceased  preaching  the  new  gospel  :  "  Educate  that 
you  may  be  free, "5 0  to  a  country  sunk  in  an  abyss  of 
ignorance  and  intellectual  lethargy.  They  tell  us  with 
shame  that  there  were  in  Ireland  at  that  time  six  counties 
without  a  single  bookseller's  shop.  Their  teaching  was, 
unhappily,  too  soon  forgotten,  amid  the  disasters  of  the 
Great  Famine,  the  Insurrection  of  1848,  and  the  reaction 
which  followed  these  events.  At  last,  however,  the 
ideals  of  Young  Ireland  came  to  life  again,  and  through 
their  influence  a  new  spirit  seemed  to  be  slowly 
developing  in  the  nation.  It  almost  appeared  as  if  a  New 
Ireland  was  rising  from  the  ruins  of  the  Old  Ireland. 

Fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  Ireland,  full  of  hopes  of 
independence  and  liberty,  was  deeply  engaged  in  an 
agrarian  and  political  struggle.  Alarmed  at  the  outrages 
committed,  and  horrified  at  the  idea  of  domestic  strife, 
some  of  the  more  sagacious  spirits  had  begun  to  hesitate 
and  reflect,  when  a  remarkable  train  of  events  took  place, 
ruining  the  nation's  illusions,  and  stultifying  her  efforts. 
The  defeat  and  death  of  Parnell  in  1 890-1 891,  the 
rejection,  in  1893,  of  the  Home  Rule  Bill  by  the  House  of 
Lords,  was  followed  in  1895  by  the  rise  of  the  Conservatives 
to  power  with  a  majority  so  large  that  for  many  a  day 
Ireland  could  expect  nothing  from  the  good-will  of 
England.  Her  people  exhibited  no  anger,  or  inclination 
to  rebellion,  but  the  violence  of  the  shock  awakened  them 
from   their  dreams   and   opened   their  eyes   to  realities. 

5°  Thomas    Davis,  Influences  of    Education.      (See    Prose    Writings 
of  Thomas  Davis,  edited  by  T.  W.  Rolleston,  London,  1890,  p.  212-215). 

2  C 


386  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

They  grasped  the  situation,  and  realised  that  circum- 
stances were  no  longer  in  their  favour.  At  Westminster 
the  Irish  Party  had  split  into  two  and  then  into  three 
sections,  which  spent  all  their  time  quarrelling  with  each 
other  and  were  powerless  apart  ;  in  Ireland  there  was 
internal^and  exhausting  strife  between  the  various  parties. 
Conquered  for  a  time,  Ireland,  mournful  and  exhausted, 
was  thrown  back  upon  her  own  resources. 

She  examined  her  conscience  and  discovered  that  she 
herself,  as  well  as  England,  was  in  part  to  blame  for  her 
misfortunes.  She  had  too  long  suffered  herself  to  be 
wholly  absorbed  in  political  agitation,  that  source  of 
trouble  and  disorganisation,  in  the  idea  of  independence, 
in  "Home  Rule,"  that  ideal  for  which  she  had  sacrificed 
everything  else,  which  will  one  day  be  granted  to  her 
beyond  all  doubt  in  one  form  or  another,  so  that  in 
effect  she  need  but  let  time  work  on  her  side.  But  in 
other  respects  was  not  time  working  against  her  ?  As 
things  were  going,  was  it  not  plunging  into  grave  peril 
that  part  of  the  life  of  a  nation  which  stands  above 
politics  and  politicians,  even  above  liberty  itself,  namely, 
Nationality  ?  One  or  two  hundred  Members  of  Parliament 
sitting  in  College  Green,  in  that  great  triangular  building 
with  the  Doric  colonnade,  now  owned  by  the  Bank,  would 
not  make  Ireland  a  nation,  and  would  never  by  waving 
a  magic  wand  endow  her  with  every  blessing  and  every 
virtue.  Politics,  even  liberty  itself,  are  not  ends,  but 
means.  How  would  Ireland  benefit  if,  when  she  finally 
won  political  freedom,  there  should  be  no  longer  an  Irish 
nation  ?  It  was  imperative  to  preserve  and  regenerate 
her  nationality.  Thus  by  a  psychological  revolution,  the 
soul  of  the  nation  would  be  remade.  By  means  of 
education  her  spiritual  strength  would  be  revived,  her 
moral  heritage  regained,  and  the  character  of  her  people 
re-created.  By  reforms  from  within  Ireland  should  once 
again  be  made  a  nation  worthy  of  the  name,  worthy  of 
her  past,  and  capable  of  living  the  life  of  the  present  day. 
Irishmen  have  been   accustomed    to    attribute    all  their 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  387 

misfortunes  to  England,  and  to  expect  every  reform 
to  come  from  the  same  quarter.  Salvation,  however,  can 
only  come  to  Ireland  from  Ireland  herself.  It  cannot 
come  from  a  man,  nor  from  a  class  of  men,  but  solely 
and  wholly  from  the  nation  at  large.  The  people  must 
be  awakened  to  a  new  life  by  education,  initiative,  and 
strenuous  effort.  For,  as  Burke  had  said,  a  country  must 
be  independent  in  fact  before  it  could  hope  to  be 
independent  in  name. 

This  new  spirit  of  reform  and  regeneration  from  within, 
the  work  of  a  few  philosophical  and  far-seeing  minds,  has 
slowly  developed,  gaining  in  force  and  influence,  and  has 
gradually  extended  itself  amongst  all  classes  of  society. 
In  practice  it  has  taken  the  form  of  three  main  movements 
which,  having  the  same  origin,  have  found  their  way  into 
neighbouring,  yet  distinct,  channels. 

The  object  of  one  of  these  Movements  is  to  develop 
and  improve  Irish  education.  It  must  be  admitted  that 
this  movement  makes  little  visible  progress,  because  it  is 
dependent  on  the  co-operation  of  governmental  depart- 
ments. It  will,  therefore,  be  sufficient  to  notice  briefly 
one  of  its  first  results.  In  the  matter  of  primary 
education,  the  force  of  public  opinion  recently  induced  the 
National  Board  not  only  to  suppress  the  "  results  svstem," 
so  destructive  to  intelligence,  but  to  establish  a  more 
flexible  and  more  varied  programme,  which  encourages 
the  managers  to  show  some  initiative,  and  gives  an 
important  place  to  manual  and  practical  instruction. 5i 
Extra  classes  on  the  French  system  have  also  been 
organised  in  the  schools,  and  superior  primary  schools 
established.  As  to  secondary  education,  a  vigorous 
campaign  against  cramming  has  succeeded  in  dimimshing 
this  evil,  and  in  procuring  the  establishment  of  a  system 
of  inspection  which  will  lessen  the  objections  to  the 
examination  system.     In  the  matter  of  higher  education, 

51  The  new  programme  came  into  force  in  1900,  in  consequence  of 
the  Commission  of  Inquiry  into  Irish  Manual  and  Technical 
Instruction,  1S9S.      See  Evidence  and  Report  of  this  Commission. 


388  POSSIBILITIES   OF   REGENERATION 

the  Bishops,  without  abandoning  the  claim  of  Catholic 
and  Nationalist  Ireland  for  proper  University  equipment, 
have  created  a  Scholarship  Fund,  subscribed  to  by  priests, 
laymen,  and  schools,  which  find  themselves  denied 
facilities,  and  administered  by  a  joint  committee.  The 
object  of  this  fund  is  to  provide  higher  education  for 
clever  young  men  at  the  conclusion  of  their  secondary 
courses.  5  2 

In  a  different  but  cognate  order  of  ideas  we  have  to 
notice  a  remarkable  development  in  the  matter  of  Public 
Libraries,  both  in  the  towns  and  in  the  rural  districts, 
where  there  are  already  a  fair  number  of  parochial 
libraries.  Moreover,  since  1902,  the  District  Councils 
have  had  power  to  establish  public  libraries  supported  by 
a  local  rate. 53  All  this  seems  of  little  account  when  one 
remembers  how  much  needs  to  be  done  in  Ireland  in  the 
cause  of  education.  It  indicates,  however,  a  change  and 
an  advance  in  public  opinion,  a  revival  of  interest  in 
educational  matters,  and  a  desire  for  more,  and  for  better, 
instruction. 

The  two  other  Movements  which  we  have  to  study, 
although  they  have  by  no  means  reached  their  complete 
development,  have  progressed  far  enough  to  exhibit 
perceptible  and  definite  results.  The  first,  the  more 
general,  and  the  more  original,  is  based  upon  history, 
and  aims  at  regenerating  the  individual  by  re-uniting  him 
with  his  race  and  its  past,  and  above  all  with  the  Gaelic 

52  The  Scholarship  Fund  for  Higher  Education  was  inaugurated  in 
June,  1905,  by  the  Irish  Episcopate,  with  a  first  donation  of  ^1,000; 
it  has  been  rapidly  augmented  by  individual  and  collective  subscriptions. 
Whilst  awaiting  the  foundation  of  a  National  University,  the  men 
students  who  have  been  awarded  Scholarships  are  sent  to  University 
College,  and  the  women  to  St.  Mary's  College  or  Loreto  College,  Dublin. 

53  In  1855  an  Act  of  Parliament  had  authorised  the  towns  to  impose 
a  local  rate  of  a  penny  in  the  pound  for  the  establishment  of  public 
libraries.  In  1902  this  power  was  extended  to  rural  districts,  and  by 
February  1906  twenty  District  Councils  had  profited  by  it.  Some 
time  ago  a  Rural  Library  Association  was  formed  with  the  object  of 
encouraging  the  development  of  country  libraries.  Parochial  libraries 
are  private  institutions  maintained  by  the  clergy  or  by  individuals.  The 
Department  of  Agriculture  (see  above,  Chap.  II.)  gives  small  premiums 
of  £3  to  these  libraries. 


THE    EDUCATION    QUESTION  389 

language.  Through  this  "  Gaelic  movement  "  the  Irish- 
man's existence  is  to  be  re-made  from  a  social  and 
psychological  point  of  view. 

The  other  movement,  that  of  economic  regeneration, 
aims  at  reforming  the  Irish  character  through  "  self-help," 
co-operation  and  technical  instruction.  By  adapting  the 
country  to  the  conditions  of  modern  life,  its  leaders  hope 
to  endow  Ireland  with  those  moral  qualities  and  economic 
methods  which  alone  can  save  her  from  material 
destruction.  Soundness  alike  of  principle  and  of  method 
renders  these  movements  superior  to  numberless  so-called 
"  new  movements,"  which  are  born  each  year  in  Ireland, 
and  which  die  almost  at  once.  The  fact  that  they 
are  constructive  also  distinguishes  them  from  any 
other  experiment  hitherto  attempted  in  Ireland.  They 
do  not  merely  seek  to  destroy  privileges  and  abuses  ; 
rather  do  they  endeavour  to  re-construct  the  Ireland  of  the 
future  on  surer  foundations. 

These  two  movements  must  be  successively  studied, 
and  afterwards  I  shall  refer  to  the  conditions  necessary 
to  their  success  ;  on  the  one  hand  religious  peace,  and  on 
the  other  the  assistance  of  the  priests  as  the  social  leaders 
of  the  people.  I  shall,  in  fact,  examine  the  religious 
question,  which  is,  in  the  nature  of  things,  intimately 
connected  with  the  regeneration  of  Ireland. 


CHAPTER   IL— THE   GAELIC  MOVEMENT. 

Dublin,  24  O'Connell  Street.  A  high  brick  building  in 
the  noisy  and  populous  main  artery  of  Dublin.  Above 
the  entrance  we  read  Connradh  na  Gaedhilge,  Gaelic 
League  ;  on  the  ground  floor  is  a  bookshop  which  sells 
only  Irish  books,  Irish  pamphlets,  Irish  newspapers.  We 
go  up  to  the  first  landing  and  find  offices,  business  clerks  : 
at  our  first  word — in  English — we  are  pulled  up  sharply 
by  a  blonde  Celt  who  says  something  in  Irish.  We  do  not 
understand,  but  gather  from  his  disdain  that  they  have 
no  need  here  for  those  unfortunates  who  at  this  time  of 
the  day  in  Ireland  are  still  backward  enough  to  be  able 
to  speak  only  English.  All  is  soon  explained,  but  we  can 
already  understand  the  astonishment,  the  irritation,  of 
English  people  when,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  British 
Isles,  ten  hours  from  London,  in  a  city  like  Dublin,  of 
350,000  inhabitants,  they  hear  a  language  spoken  which 
they  do  not  understand — a  language  2,000  years  old — or 
when  in  the  West  of  Ireland,  asking  the  way,  they  get  the 
answer,  given,  moreover,  in  English,  No  English,  Sir  ! 
When  such  English  visitors  are  of  an  observant  turn  of 
mind  and  compare  the  Ireland  of  to-day  with  the  Ireland 
of  twenty  years  ago,  they  perceive  that  a  great  change 
has  taken  place,  and  they  are  not  far  wrong  when  they 
see  in  the  revival  of  the  Irish  language  the  symbol  and 
the  agent  of  this  profound  transformation.1 

1  See  on  the  Gaelic  League  the  pamphlets  and  publications  of  the 
Gaelic  League,  the  newspaper  An  Claidheamh  Soluis,  the  reviews, 
Jrisleabhar  na  Gaedhilge,  Banba,  Uladh,  etc.,  the  evidence  of  Dr.  Douglas 
Hyde  before  the  Intermediate  Education  (Ireland)  Commission,  1899 
(Evidence,  p.  482,  et  seq.),  and  before  the  Royal  Commission  on 
University  Education  in  Ireland,  1902  (Evidence,  III.,  p.  34  et  seq.). 
Cf.  an  article  by  Thomas  O'Donnell,  L  Irlande,  sa  langue,  sa  liberté,  in 


THE   GAELIC    MOVEMENT  391 

This  transformation  began  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago. 
In  the  time  of  recollection  and  retreat  which  followed  on 
political  disintegration,  Ireland  came  to  understand  that 
if  liberty  had  always  been  refused  her  it  was  because  her 
nationality    had    not    been    forcibly    enough    affirmed 
before  English  eyes.      She  understood  that  independence 
alone    does    not    make    a    nation  ;     that    independence 
itself  may  not   always   indicate  nationhood  ;    that   the 
essential  mark  of  nationhood  is  the  intellectual,  social  and 
moral  patrimony  which  the  past  bequeaths  to  the  present, 
which,  amplified,  or  at  least  preserved,  the  present  must 
bequeath  to  the  future  ;    and  that  it  is  this  which  makes 
the  strength  and  individuality  of  a  people.     And  she  had 
to  recognise  that,  hypnotised  as  she  was  by  the  consti- 
tutional battle,  she  had  neglected  the  care  of  this  national 
heritage  ;     she   had    allowed   it    to    perish,    and,    letting 
substance  go  for  shadow,  abandoning  her  traditions,  her 
mind,  and   her  language,    was,    in  contact  with  Anglo- 
Saxon    influence,   about  to    "  denationalise  "    herself,  to 
"  Anglo-Saxonise  "   herself,   or,  to   employ  a   word   less 
barbarous,  though  less    accurate,2  to    "  Anglicise  "   her- 
self. 

Seeing  the  evil,  she  also  saw  the  remedy.  She  perceived 
that  psychological  emancipation  was  more  urgent,  more 
necessary,  than  political  emancipation  ;  that  legal  Home 
Rule  must  follow  moral  Home  Rule  ;  that  she  must 
deanglicise  herself  first  of  all,  regain  her  ancient 
patrimony,  recover  her  language,  her  national  customs, 
make  positive  a  nationality  that  had  come  to  be 
scarcely  more  than  negative,  and,  by  a  supreme  effort, 
bring  to  life  an  Ireland,  no  longer  Anglo-Saxon  but  Irish. 

la  Revue  (formerly  Revue  des  Revues)  of  June  ist,  1903.  See  also  the 
Revival  of  Irish  Literature  by  various  authors,  London,  1894.  Ideals 
in  Ireland,  by  Lady  Gregory  and  others,  Dublin,  1901.  Literary  Ideals 
in  Ireland,  by  John  Eglinton  and  others,  Dublin,  1899.  Irish  Ideas, 
by  William  O'Brien,  London,  1893.  To-day  and  To-morrow  in  Ireland, 
by  Stephen  Gwynn,  London,  1903.  The  Philosophy  of  Irish  Ireland, 
by  D.  P.  Moran,  Dublin,  1905.  Douglas  Hyde,  Literary  History  of 
Ireland,  London,  1903,  p.  608,  et  seq. 

2  Less  accurate  because  the  United  States   is  also  a  denationalising 
influence. 


392  POSSIBILITIES   OF   REGENERATION 

The  Irish  people  set  themselves  courageously  to  this  work 
of  reconstruction.  Slowly  and  quietly,  a  great 
movement,  a  Gaelic  renaissance,  grew  out  of  the 
country's  very  heart.  It  was  a  popular  and  spontaneous 
movement  that  united  classes  instead  of  dividing  them  ; 
a  movement  in  its  nature  non-political,  having  for  its 
origin  no  thought  of  hatred  against  England,  but  a  very 
profound  and  legitimate  sentiment  for  social  preservation  ; 
such  a  movement  in  fact  towards  traditional  and  national 
re-birth  as  took  place  during  the  century  in  many  small 
countries  of  the  Continent  whose  life  had  likewise  been 
stifled  by  the  influence  of  stronger  peoples.  In  Ireland 
this  re-birth  had  provoked  an  enthusiasm,  a  passion,  one 
might  almost  say  a  faith,  such  as  only  the  greatest 
national  and  religious  revolutions  have  been  able  to  create 
in  the  history  of  the  world. 


I. — Anglicisation. 

England  had  indeed  done  all  that  she  could  to  Anglicise 
Ireland.  Mr.  W.  B.  Yeats,  one  of  the  masters  of  poetry 
in  the  English  language,  has  said  that  the  final  object  of 
all  politics  and  government  is  the  making  of  character. 
So  one  might  say  that  English  government  in  Ireland  has 
had  as  final  obj  ect  the  fashioning  of  the  Irish  Celt  according 
to  the  Anglo-Saxon  type,  that  is  to  say,  the  turning  of 
the  Irishman  into  an  Englishman.  The  work  did  not 
prove  easy,  and  at  times,  under  Cromwell,  for  example, 
England  preferred  the  more  effective  or  simpler 
method  of  extermination.  The  battle  of  the  two 
civilisations  had  been  indecisive  long  enough.  Up  to  the 
days  of  the  Protector,  Ireland,  despite  proscriptive  laws, 
had  absorbed  the  Anglo-Norman  and  English  planters,  who 
had  become  more  national  than  the  Nationalists,  Hibernis 
ipsis  Hiberniores.  These  settlers  adopted  the  ways  of  the 
Irish,  spoke  the  Irish  language,  took  Irish  names  ;  in 
fact  there  was  but  one  man  in  the  Irish  Parliament  of 


THE    GAELIC   MOVEMENT  393 

1541  who  could  speak  English — the  Earl  of  Ormond.  And 
perhaps  nothing  would  have  checked  this  tendency  but 
the  great  persecutions,  the  plantations — above  all,  the 
Penal  Laws,  which  for  so  long  destroyed  all  the  powers 
of  resistance  and  of  growth  that  Ireland's  soul  possessed. 
In  the  period  that  separates  the  revolution  in  England 
from  that  in  Ireland,  the  wave  hung  at  poise  between 
the  assimilative  forces  of  Erin  and  those  of  Albion. 
Thus  it  was  only  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  British  society  and  culture  represented  in 
Ireland  by  the  English  and  Protestant  garrison, 
began  to  draw  to  themselves  the  Irish  aristocracy, 
and  with  it  the  clergy  and  bourgeoisie  who  were  now 
gradually  giving  up  the  use  of  the  national  language. 
This  was  the  period  during  which  Protestants,  such  as 
Grattan  and  Plunkett,  upheld  the  claims  of  Catholic 
Ireland  ;  and  the  enlightened  classes  begun  to  see  in  a 
friendship  with  England  their  country's  hope  of  safety 
and  of  freedom.  Soon  after  came  the  days  of  Thomas 
Moore,  the  famous  poet,  and  of  Daniel  O'Connell,  the 
great  agitator  ;  and  the  poetry  of  one  and  the  politics  of 
the  other  were  founded  upon  the  basis  of  English  speech. 
The  people  themselves  were  soon  won  over,  and  their 
"  Anglicisation  "  was  due  not  merely  to  the  imitative 
instinct,  but  also  to  a  system  of  primary  education, 
called  "national,"  whose  effects  were  carefully  calculated 
by  its  promoters.  The  system  was  organised  in  183 1  by 
Stanley  (Lord  Derby)  and  by  the  Anglican  Archbishop, 
Whately.  All  the  evidence  that  is  available  seems  to  show 
that  their  object  must  have  been  to  destroy  at  any  cost 
the  mother-tongue  of  the  children.  True,  the  language  is 
not  proscribed  by  law  in  the  schools.  Nevertheless  the 
teachers  sent  to  those  districts  where  Irish  is  still  generally 
spoken  do  not  know  Irish  ;  the  school-books,  copy-books, 
and  models  that  are  used  are  all  English  ;  Irish  history 
is  prohibited  or,  worse  still,  distorted.  Is  not  history 
patriotic,  and  is  not  all  that  is  patriotic  seditious  ?  The 
child  must  not  know  the  names  of  Clontarf,  Tara,  Owen 


394  POSSIBILITIES    OF   REGENERATION 

Roe  O'Neill.  His  mind  becomes  a  desert.  The  language 
and  traditions  of  the  Gael  are  thus  destroyed,  but  at  the 
cost  of  the  intelligence  of  the  younger  generation.  Lately 
someone  asked  a  teacher  in  a  Western  village  how  he,  who 
knew  no  Irish,  could  claim  to  teach  children  who  knew 
no  English  :  "  It  takes  me  two  months,  to  begin  with  to 
wring  their  Irish  out  of  them,"  he  answered,  and  twisted 
his  hands  as  though  pressing  water  out  <&  wet  linen. 
Not  long  ago  Lady  Gregory  told  how,  in  a  certain  island 
on  the  Western  coast,  there  is  to  be  found,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  customs  officials,  but  one  inhabitant 
who  does  not  know  Irish,  and  that  is  the  schoolmaster. 3 
Even  now  there  are  old  people  who  remember  how  in 
their  childhood  a  wooden  tablet  was  hung  upon  their 
necks  ;  on  it  a  notch  was  made  for  each  Irish  word  they 
spoke,  and,  at  the  end  of  school  hours,  they  received  a 
stroke  for  every  notch. 

In  the  result,  the  language  of  Saint  Patrick  and  Saint 
Brigid,  after  having  offered  a  wonderful  resistance  for 
centuries — the  first  law  against  it  dates  from  1367 — has 
been  rapidly  approaching  extinction  for  the  last  hundred 
years.  The  Penal  Laws  had  tended  to  preserve  it,  in 
that  they  separated  Celt  from  Saxon,  but  Catholic 
Emancipation,  drawing  together  as  it  did  the  two  Irelands, 
seemed  its  death-warrant.  At  the  eve  of  the  Great  Famine, 
the  mass  of  the  people,  outside  the  large  towns,  still 
spoke  Irish  ;  to-day,  partly  owing  to  emigration,  Irish  is 
only  spoken  by  600,000  persons,  out  of  four  and  a  half 
millions,  and  that  concurrently  with  English.  Twenty 
thousand  persons  speak  Irish  only  ;  these  are  mainly  of 
the  West. 4  At  the  very  time  when  Zeuss,  on  the  Continent, 
rediscovered  the  key  of  Celtic  study,5  Modern  Irish,  heir 
to  the  tongue  of  Oisin  and  of  Finn,  was  disappearing  most 
rapidly  from  Irish  soil. 

3  Ireland,  Real  and  Ideal,  by  Lady  Gregory  {Nineteenth  Century, 
1898).     Cf.  Ideals  in  Ireland,  p.  55. 

4  The  Census  of  1901  (General  Report,  72)  states  that  620,189  persons 
speak  Irish  concurrently  with  English,  and  20,953  speak  Irish  only. 

5  It  was  in  1853  that  Zeuss,  the  father  of  Celtic  studies,  published 
his  Grammatica  Celtica  in  Berlin. 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  395 

Language  and  people  have  fled  from  the  mother- 
country,  the  language  even  more  rapidly  than  the  people. 
The  Old  Connacht  peasant  still  tells  his  rosary  in  Irish, 
but  his  sons  and  daughters  follow  in  English.  Too  often 
the  priest  in  Donegal  or  in  Kerry  has  ceased  to  preach, 
and  the  faithful  to  pray,  in  Irish.6  And  it  is  sadder  still 
to  think  that  under  the  influence  of  English  schooling 
and  of  the  bourgeoisie,  these  poor  Irish  peasants  have 
come  at  length  to  despise  the  language  of  their  ancestors, 
to  despise  an  utterance,  sweet,  fluid  and  musical,  full  of 
poetry  and  rhythm,  as  though  it  were  a  mark  of 
inferiority,  a  source  of  shame,  something  to  hide,  "  like 

the  blue  ring  on  the  nail  of  a  mongrel." 

It  is  fashion  that  is  killing  the  language,  not  want  of 
vitality.  A  German  Celticist  remarked  a  while  ago  that 
Paddy  speaks  Irish  to  his  pig  which  he  brings  to  the 
market,  to  his  donkey  which  brings  him  there,  to  the 
dozen  children  or  the  half-dozen  little  pigs  who  live  in  his 
cabin,  to  all  those  who  are  surrounded  by  the  same  misery 
as  he.  But  as  for  speaking  Irish  to  the  priest,  to  the 
"  gentry,"  or  to  the  stranger  whom  he  meets  on  the  road, 
that  would  show  a  want  of  education.7  Mgr.  MacHale, 
a  forerunner  of  the  new  gospel,  has  told  how  he  was 
answered  by  one  of  his  diocesans  when  he  suggested  that 
the  discussion  of  their  business  should  be  conducted  in 
Irish.  "  Your  Grace,  I  have  a  great  deal  too  much  respect 
for  you."8  Often,  in  the  West,  the  children  mistake 
English  for  Irish. 9  Others,  on  the  contrary,  are  proud 
that  they  do  not  know  Irish  ;  and  they  have  a  word  to 
express  their  sentiments  towards    it  :    "  Irish  is  bet."  I0 

6  The  Catholic  clergy  in  the  past  often  discouraged  the  use  of  the 
Irish  language.  There  was  a  reason  for  this,  viz.,  the  need  for  combating 
the  Protestant  propaganda  carried  on  in  the  native  idiom. 

7  Zimmer,  Der  Pankeltismus  in  Grossbritanien  und  Irland,  Preussiche 
Jahrbiicher,  July  and  August,  1898. 

8  lb.      Cf.  Irish  Ideas,  p.  68. 

9  See  the  examples  instanced  by  Dr.  Hyde  in  The  Revival  of  Irish 
Literature,  p.    137,  et  seq. 

10  I.e.,  beaten.  Lady  Gregory  tells  how  the  peasants  said  of  Dr. 
Hyde  when  he  went  out  shooting  over  her  land  in  the  West  of  Ireland, 
"  He  speaks  Irish,  he  cannot  be  a  gentleman." 


396  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION. 

A  short  time  ago  I  had  this  reply  quoted  to  me  as  that  of  a 
farm  labourer  to  his  comrade  who  had  asked  him  a  question 
in  Irish  :  ''  Hell  to  your  soul,  can't  I  speak  English  as 
well  as  you  !  " 

Note  the  vulgar  brutality  of  the  expression,  and  compare 
it  with  the  softness  of  tone,  the  delicacy,  that  are 
distinctive  of  the  ancient  Celtic  speech.  In  changing  his 
language,  the  Irish  peasant  is  irrevocably  losing  that 
courtesy,  that  respect  for  himself,  which  even  yesterday 
was  so  striking  to  the  traveller  in  the  very  poorest  villages 
of  the  West.  These  things  made  bygone  Ireland,  like 
bygone  Spain,  a  nation  of  gentlemen.  The  Irish  peasant 
is  growing  demoralised,  degraded,  vulgarised,  not  only  by 
the  evil  tourist  influence,  but,  above  all,  by  the  base 
London  Press  which  day  by  day  sends  out  its  bales  of 
"  half-penny  horrors,"  and  penny  dreadfuls,  even  to  the 
very  hamlets  of  Munster  and  Connaught.  He  is  on  the 
road  to  become  a  Cockney.  Now  there  is  in  the 
tendencies  that  we  have  described  something  more  than 
that  significant  disappearance  of  local  colour  which  may 
be  observed  everywhere  at  the  present  day.  A  slow 
process  of  denationalisation  is  indicated,  traces  of  which 
are  to  be  perceived  in  an  even  more  marked  form  among 
the  Irish  middle  classes — not  to  mention  the  aristocracy, 
which  is,  perhaps  hopelessly,  Anglicised.  The  professional 
and  commercial  classes  of  the  towns  long  ago  gave  up  the 
use  of  the  Irish  language,  and  thus  of  their  own  free  will 
cut  themselves  off  from  the  sources  of  national  tradition. 
Since  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics  in  1829  the 
bourgeoisie  have  been  naturally  attracted  towards  Govern- 
ment employment  of  all  kinds,  situations  in  banks,  and 
in  large  businesses  where  the  spirit  that  reigns  is,  as  a 
rule,  Anglo-Saxon  where  it  is  not  actually  anti- Irish.  But 
the  ruin  of  this  class  has  been  above  all  due  to  its  incurable 
desire  to  admire  and  imitate  things  English,  English 
customs  and  ideas,  to  its  shoneenism,11  the  national  and, 

11  English  adaptation  of  the  Irish  word  Séoinin  (practically,  snob 
one  who  copies  the  mind  and  the  manners  of  the  "  respectable" 
classes). 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  397 

social  sin  of  Irish  snobs.  Only  the  "  respectable  "  is  of 
value  ;  now  everything  English  is  respectable,  and  nothing 
is  respectable  which  is  not  English.  The  "  Saxon,"  the 
hereditary  enemy,  is  despised  and  hated,  but  such  is  his 
influence  that  he  is  copied  in  all  things  ;  he  is  of  the 
"  dominant  race."  Under  William  III.  and  Cromwell, 
Ireland  looked  towards  .France  and  Spain,  now  her  eyes 
are  fixed  on  America  and  England.  In  small  things  as  in 
great,  it  would  seem  that  all  initiative  and  originality  are 
lost.  Everyone  grafts  an  English  accent  upon  his  Irish 
brogue.  Fashions,  customs,  sports,  come  from  England. 
The  caricatures  in  "  Punch,"  the  satires  of  "Truth  "  are 
the  humourous  food  of  the  Irish.  In  the  theatre  one  sees 
but  the  latest  novelties  from  London,  in  the  music  halls 
songs  and  monologues  in  which  Paddy,  playing  the  fool, 
serves  to  amuse  his  compatriots  with  his  grotesque  antics. 
Dress  and  furniture  are  English.  Girls  are  called  no  longer 
Brigid  or  Eileen  but  Maud  or  Mabel  ;  boys  not  Donal  or 
Diarmuid,  but  Ned  or  Bertie.  Even  family  names  are 
Anglicised.  The  O  or  the  Mac  is  suppressed  ;  O'Byrne 
becomes  Burns,  O'Shaughnessy,  Chauncey.12  So  it  is 
with  names  of  places.  Tailtin,  for  instance,  is  changed  to 
Telltown.  As  regards  music,  the  traditional  harp  of 
Ireland  has,  so  to  speak,  disappeared  ;  the  country 
fiddlers  and  pipers,  the  bagpipe  and  violin  players  are 

12  See  the  curious  details  in  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde's  article  The  Necessity 
for  De-anglicising  Ireland  {The  Revival  of  Irish  Literature,  p.  141,  et 
seq.).  In  1465  an  Act  of  Parliament  ordered  the  Irish  to  take  English 
names,  or  names  of  towns,  of  colours,  and  of  trades  ;  hence,  Butler, 
Cooke,  London,  etc.  What  before  the  Penal  Laws  was  far  more  wide- 
spread was  the  Norman,  or  Anglo- Irishman' s  taking  of  an  Irish  name  ; 
thus,  the  De  Burghs  called  themselves  MacWilliam,  the  De  Courcys, 
MacPatrick,  the  Stauntons,  MacAveely,  etc.  In  the  nineteenth  century, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  Anglicisation  of  patronymic  names  went  on 
rapidly.  Sometimes  they  were  written  in  English  with  an  appropriate 
change  ;  Mahaffy  was  made  of  Mac  Gaffey,  Hyde  of  O'Sheehan,  Kane 
of  O'Cahan,  etc.  Sometimes  they  were  translated  according  to  the 
original  meaning  of  the  name  ;  Mac  Inteer  [Mac  an  tSaoir,  son  of  the 
carpenter)  became  Carpenter.  Occasionally  the  translation  turned  to 
a  pun,  and  O'Gara  taking  the  origin  of  his  name  from  the  word  Caraim 
(I  love)  adopted  the  English  name  Love  !  (Cf.  Dr.  Hyde's  Evidence 
before  the  1898  Commission  on  Intermediate  Education  in  Ireland, 
Evidence,  p.  482,  et  seq.). 


398  POSSIBILITIES   OF   REGENERATION 

gone.  The  great  newspapers,  anti-English  though  they 
be  in  politics,  are  all  managed  and  edited  in  the  English 
manner. 

Then  lastly  there  are  the  politicians.  Mr.  O'Donnell  is 
instanced  as  having  revolutionised  the  House  of  Commons 
a  short  while  ago  by  making  a  speech  in  Irish,  or  the 
commencement  of  a  speech — for  the  Speaker  interrupted 
him,  observing  that  for  six  hundred  years  English  only 
had  been  spoken  in  the  English  Parliament.  But  when 
his  colleagues  hold  their  meetings  in  the  West  where  Irish 
is  still  generally  spoken,  they  seldom  address  their 
audiences  in  Irish. 

From  one  end  of  Ireland  to  the  other  one  sees,  in  towns 
and  villages  alike,   a  class  of  persons  who,  while  they 
remain  Nationalist  politically  and  preach  fervently  against 
English  tyranny,  have  no  other  ambition  than  to  become 
West  Britons,   as  the  phrase  goes.       Truly  the  way  of 
Anglicisation  is  sweet  and  easy.    Ireland  has  but  to  forget 
her  race,  deny  her  ancestry,  suppress  her  history.      But 
whither  does  that  path  lead  in  the  long  run  ?      Ireland 
might   Anglicise   herself,  but   would   she,    can   she   ever 
become  English  ?      We  may  doubt  it.      What  is  certain 
at  present  is  Ireland's  mental  and  moral  loss,  or  likely 
loss,  which  will  comprise  above  all  her  intellectual  vigour, 
her  suppleness  and  freedom  of  spirit.     She  receives  more 
ideas  and  creates  fewer,   she  invents  less  and  imitates 
more.     Cut  off  from  its  roots  in  the  past,  the  Irish  mind 
loses,   with  the  national  language,   its  best  instrument, 
loses  its  vivacity  and  originality,  becomes  dry  and  languid. 
Formerly  the  Irishman's  interests  were  varied  and  acute. 
Now  he  suffers  from  a  mental  famine,  and  Englishmen 
already  notice  how  their  influence  has  blunted  the  noted 
spirit  and  animation  of  the  Irish.     It  must  be  remembered 
that  there  is  a  constantly  increasing  drain  on  the  intellec- 
tual strength   of  the  people,  by  reason  of  the  openings 
for  employment  which  England  offers  them  in  journalism, 
the  colonial  service,  Indian  administration,  and  commerce, 
and  which  do  not  exist  in  their  own  country.      By  the 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  399 

Anglicisation  of  herself,  Ireland,  from  the  moral  point  of 
view,  loses  what  such  a  race,  which  has  remained  always 
young  at  heart  and  which  has  been  kept  pure  by 
agricultural  life  and  the  influence  of  a  clergy,  who 
are  at  once  powerful  and  popular,  must  inevitably 
lose  in  contact  with  the  utilitarianism  and  materialism 
of  a  very  advanced  civilisation,  and  especially  in  contact 
with  our  industrial  and  centralised  societies  of  to-day. 
Anglicisation,  so  say  observant  Irishmen,  tends  to  lower 
the  moral  level  of  the  nation,  and  to  decrease  the 
individual's  respect  for  himself,  his  energy,  his  spirit  of 
initiative,  and  his  sense  of  responsibility.  Has  Ireland 
adopted  the  better  features  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  character, 
those  which  are  worthy  of  respect  ?  No,  but  she  has 
taken  from  it  precisely  what  is  lowest  and  most  vile  ;  she 
has  adopted  the  vices  of  England  and  not  her  virtues — 
and  because  they  were  easier  to  adopt  !  It  is  a  well-known 
fact  that  j  ust  as  the  average  rate  of  criminality  is  very 
small  in  Ireland  relatively  to  what  it  is  in  the  great  English 
towns,  the  natives  of  those  districts  where  Irish  still  lives 
are,  morally,  on  a  higher  level  than  those  of  other  parts 
of  the  country.  They  are  cleaner,  more  virtuous,  better- 
mannered,  said  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde  a  while  ago,  and  he  is 
a  Protestant  who  has  lived  among  them.  In  no  part  of 
the  country,  said  the  Cardinal  Primate  of  Ireland  in  his 
turn,  is  faith  stronger  and  religious  feeling  more  profound, 
than  among  the  Irish-speaking  population.^  Impregnated 
as  it  is  with  mysticism  and  spirituality,  the  old  tongue 
is  the  most  powerful  factor  in  their  religious  beliefs,  and 
at  the  same  time  the  best  safeguard  against  the  agnosticism 
and  paganism  of  the  present  day. 

If  Ireland  were  to  gain  in  other  directions  what  she 
loses  in  her  moral  traditions,  her  culture  and  originality, 
through  Anglicisation,  it  would  be  another  matter.  But 
a  people  can  only  develop  by  developing  its  natural  gifts 
and  native  qualities.  It  cannot,  as  it  chooses,  acquire  the 
soul  of  another  people  by  some  national  metempsychosis. 

3  Quoted  by  Dr.  Hyde  in  Gaelic  League  Pamphlet,  No.  16,  p.  14. 


4oo  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

As  soon  as  it  abandons  its  natural  goal,  its  natural 
possibilities,  to  copy  its  neighbour  and  to  forge  a  borrowed 
civilisation,  it  disqualifies  and  condemns  itself  out  of  its 
own  mouth.  Adoption  is  no  substitute  for  heredity  :  to 
imitate  is  to  decay,  with  peoples  as  with  individuals. 
Ireland,  the  country  of  Ireland,  may  well  become  an 
English  Shire,  a  Province  of  England,  as  did  the  ancient 
Kingdom  of  Kent.  The  people  of  Ireland  may  cease  to 
be  a  nation.  The  word  Ireland  may  come  to  be  but  a 
geographical  expression.  But  the  Irish  cannot  become 
English.  In  ceasing  to  become  Celts  they  will  not  become 
Saxons.  Anglicisation  can  but  "  denationalise  "  them. 
It  will  not  give  them  a  fresh  civil  status.  Their  position 
will  be  that  of  the  unclassed.  They  will  become  the  lost 
children  of  history,  without  future  or  past.  To-day 
Anglicisation  can  but  signify  the  national  extinction  of 
Ireland. 


II. — The  Gaelic  League. 

A  day  came  when  observant  minds  in  Ireland  became 
aware  of  the  danger  which  the  nation  ran  through  the 
cancer  of  Anglicisation,  and  understood  the  necessity  for 
reform  in  the  shape  of  the  liberation  of  the  Irish  soul 
from  the  intellectual  yoke  of  England.  But  how  was  a 
national  reconstruction  to  be  effected  ?  How  was  the 
country  to  be  joined  again  to  its  past  traditions,  and  given 
a  mental  and  moral  life  of  its  own  ?  It  was  certain  that 
Anglicisation  had  begun  its  work,  when  the  old  language 
had  been  lost.  Therefore,  must  not  the  Irish  Renaissance 
begin  with  the  readoption  of  that  language  ?  So  thought 
a  small  and  elite  group  of  Irish  patriots,  men  of  talent 
and  enthusiasm,  imbued  with  the  national  gospel  preached 
by  Thomas  Davis  forty  years  earlier — a  gospel  which 
Ireland  had  to  some  extent  forgotten  amidst  the  sufferings 
.of  the  Great  Famine,  Fenianism  and  the  Land  Wars. 
Prominent  in  this  group  was  the  descendant  of  an  old 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  401 

Protestant  family  of  Roscommon,  a  Celtic  scholar  and 
folk-lorist,  a  poet  of  merit  in  English,  a  poet  in  Irish 
also,  so  say  the  connoisseurs,  Dr.  Douglas  Hyde.  He  had 
the  genius  for  propaganda,  and  when  the  country  was 
ripe  for  it,  gave  body  to  his  ideas  by  founding  the  Gaelic 
League,  with  the  aid  of  his  early  friends,  in  1893. 1 

The  Gaelic  League — though  to  limit  the  Irish  renaissance 
by  placing  it  under  this  title  would  be  to  limit  its  actual 
scope — may  be  said  to  be  a  faithful  representative  of  the 
general  ideas  underlying  the  new  Irish  movement.  It 
has  declared  its  objects  to  be,  the  preservation  of  Irish 
as  the  national  language,  the  study  of  ancient  Irish 
literature,  and  the  cultivation  of  a  modern  literature  in 
the  Irish  language.  But  we  must  be  careful  not  to  judge 
it  by  its  name.  The  Gaelic  League  is  not  a  society  of 
scholars,  and  leaves  to  others  all  that  concerns  literature 
and  philology,  pure  and  simple.  It  is  occupied  with 
propaganda,  the  application  of  its  doctrine  of  a  national 
renaissance  on  the  basis  of  the  national  language.  It 
intends  to  confer  anew  upon  the  country  a  psychological 

1  Thomas  Davis  was  concerned  chiefly  with  the  rebirth  of  the  national 
idea  (see  nevertheless  his  essay  :  Our  National  Language,  in  the  Prose 
Writings  of  Thomas  Davis,  edited  by  T.  W.  Rolleston,  p.  158,  et  seq.), 
The  revival  of  the  Gaelic  language  was,  on  the  other  hand,  preached, 
about  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  by  another  Young  Irelander. 
Smith  O'Brien,  and  by  Monsignor  MacHale,  Archbishop  of  Tuam, 
All  the  same,  until  1876,  there  was  no  sign  manifested  of  a  practical 
effort  in  favour  of  the  national  language.  But  in  that  year  there  was 
founded  by  Father  Nolan,  aided  by  David  Comyn  and  others,  the 
Society  for  the  Preservation  of  the  Irish  Language,  which  still  exists 
to-day  and  is  chiefly  occupied  with  the  editing  and  distribution  of 
manuals,  books  of  study,  etc.,  and  gives  both  prizes  and  grants  for 
the  study  of  Irish.  In  1878  this  Society  succeeded,  by  the  aid  of  John 
Fleming,  in  placing  Irish  on  the  programme  of  the  primary  schools. 
In  the  following  year,  the  most  enthusiastic  and  active  element — with 
Father  Nolan  at  its  head — separated  itself  from  the  Society  and  formed 
The  Gaelic  Union,  with  the  intention  of  a  more  energetic  propaganda. 
From  1882  onwards  the  Gaelic  Union  published  the  Gaelic  Journal, 
which  was  managed  by  David  Comyn,  John  Fleming,  and  Father 
O'Growney,  successively.  This  last — one  of  the  men  who  by  their 
faith  and  simple  modesty  have  done  most  for  the  language — became 
in  1889,  Professor  of  Irish  in  the  great  seminary  of  Maynooth,  where 
he  restored  the  study  of  the  national  language  to  a  position  of  honour. 
(See  The  O'Growney  Memorial  Volume,  by  Miss  Agnes  O'Farrelly, 
M.A.,  Dublin,  1904).  Finally,  in  1893,  Dr.  Hyde,  with  the  help  of 
David  Comyn,  Father  O'Growney,  John  MacNeill,  and  O'Neill  Russell, 
formed,  from  the  small  Gaelic  Union,  the  Gaelic  League  itself. 

2  D 


402  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

education,  and,  by  means  of  the  national  language,  by 
the  revival  of  national  art  and  literature,  and  the 
reconstitution  of  a  national  social  system,  to  regenerate 
its  soul  from  within  and  teach  Ireland  how  she  may 
again  be  a  nation. 

What  it  says,  and  what  its  directing  spirits  say  to  the 
nation,  in  their  pamphlets,  newspapers  and  public  meetings 
may  be  summed  up  in  some  such  fashion  as  this  : — 

"  Ireland  has  reached  the  critical  moment  of  her  history. 
She  is  quietly  sliding  down  the  easy  and  fatal  declivity 
of  Anglicisation  at  the  base  of  which  is  written  :  Finis 
Hibernice.  Shame  upon  our  fathers,  shame  upon  ourselves, 
to  have  denied  our  past,  forfeited  our  honour,  accepted 
with  gaiety  of  heart  our  assimilation  with  the  Sassenach. 
We  are  living  on  a  lie  and  soon  we  shall  die  of  it.  In  a 
generation  or  two  all  will  be  over  with  us,  if  we  do  not 
recover  ourselves  again,  that  is  to  say,  become  Irish  and 
cease  to  be  West  Britons.  We  must  rebuild  a  National 
Erin,  an  Irish  Ireland. 

"  For  too  long  we  have  confused  two  things,  politics 
and  nationality.  The  country  will  not  be  saved  by 
parliamentary  manoeuvres,  however  clever,  nor  by  the 
speeches  of  the  '  Irish  Brigade  '  at  Westminster,  however 
eloquent.  Politicians  do  not  make  a  nationality — indeed 
they  may  sometimes  help  to  destroy  one.  It  is  our  links 
with  the  past,  it  is  the  survival  in  us  of  our  ancestors — 
and  by  the  word  ancestor  we  do  not  mean  Swift  or  Grattan 
but  all  the  race  of  Erin  since  the  glorious  Gaels  at  the 
dawn  of  history — that  make  us  a  nation  ;  it  is  the 
community  of  ideas,  of  sentiment,  of  language,  binding 
century  to  century,  and  generation  to  generation.  It  is, 
alas,  all  that  we  have  been  losing  for  fifty  years,  all  that 
we  must  now  regain.  Whether  we  obtain  Home  Rule  in 
ten  years  or  in  twenty,  is  not  a  vital  matter  for  the 
nation.  Home  Rule  can  wait,  but  not  the  cause  of  our 
nationality,  nor  that  of  our  language,  for  on  the  day 
when  these  are  gone,  all  hope  of  liberty  will  perish 
therewith.         '  What  !  '    England   will   ask,    '  you    claim 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  403 

independence  ?  By  what  title  ?  Are  you  not  English  ? 
What  language  do  you  speak  ?  '  Let  us  labour  then  to 
reform  our  national  individuality,  and,  above  all,  let  us 
resume  our  national  language.  The  first  of  liberties  is 
that  of  the  soul  ! 

"  When  we  travel  abroad  why  are  we  always  counted 
as  English  ?  Because  language  is  the  chief  sign  of 
nationality.  '  The  tongue  of  the  conquerors  in  the 
mouth  of  the  conquered  is  but  the  language  of  slaves,' 
wrote  Tacitus,  and  as  Thomas  Davis  so  finely  said  : 
"A  people  without  a  language  of  its  own  is  only 
half  a  nation.  A  nation  should  guard  its  language 
more  than  its  territories — 'tis  a  surer  barrier,  a  more 
important  frontier,  than  mountain  or  river."2  When 
the  language  is  Irish  the  heart  will  be  Irish  !  Be 
certain  that  an  Irish  speaking  Ireland  will  be  free  for 

ever 

"  Do  you  know  what  our  national  language  is  ?      An 
empty  system  of  algebraical  signs,  a  dictionary  of  lifeless 
formulas  ?      No,  it  is  the  soul  of  the  nation.      It  is  the 
genius  of  the  people  ;    it  represents  and  preserves  their 
beliefs  and  traditions,  their  type  of  mind  and  of  heart, 
and  these  in  their  turn  survive  in  and  through  it.      It  is 
the  key  to  our  history,  our  beliefs,  our  psychology,  our 
ancient  Celtic  literature  ;    better  still,  it  is  the  key  to  a 
potential  literature,  a  whole  world  of  ideas  and  of  intense 
passion  ......  And  people  wish  that  all  this  should 

vanish  !  Truly  the  intellectual  and  literary  future  of 
Ireland  depends  on  the  future  of  our  national  language. 
"  It  is  nonsense  to  say  that  we  wish  to  rid  ourselves  of 
the  language  of  Shakespeare.  We  need  English  for  our 
material  life,  Irish  for  our  moral  life.  Between  the  one 
and  the  other  there  is  no  more  incompatibility  than  exists 
between  the  catechism  and  the  multiplication  table.  We 
wish  to  be  bi-lingual  as  are  the  Czechs,  the  Swiss,  and 
the  Flemish,  and  many  other  people  who  are  counted 
amongst  the  most  capable  and  intelligent  of  nations  and 

2  Our  National  Language  (Prose  Writings,  p.   160). 


4o4  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

who  are  better  armed  than  others  in  the  struggle  for  life. 
1  Who  knows  but  one  language,  knows  none,'  said  Max 
Muller.  For  our  children  there  can  be  no  better  mental 
gymnastic  than  the  study  of  our  beautiful  language  which 
is  so  rich  and  synthetic;  no  better  moral  training  than 
that  which  a  language  so  pure,  so  ideal,  so  poetical,  gives 
them,  uplifting,  fortifying,  spiritualizing,  as  it  is  ;  and 
offering,  as  it  does,  the  best  barrier  against  the  mammon 
worship  of  the  day.  Our  national  language  will  re-trans- 
form us  into  Irishmen,  by  drawing  us  close  again  to  our 
race,  as  to  something  greater  than  ourselves  ;  it  will  give 
back  to  us  that  proud  dignity,  that  energy,  that  initiative 
which  never  fail  to  awaken  in  weak  peoples  a  lively 
sentiment  of  their  distinct  nationality  ;  and  at  the  same 
time  will  open  up  the  way  to  material  prosperity,  for 
there  is  no  case  in  European  history  in  which  a  national 
renaissance  has  not  been  accompanied  or  followed  by 
an  economic  one. 

"  So  the  hour  has  come  for  the  choice  :  we  must  conquer 
Anglicisation  or  perish  at  its  hands.  Either  we  will  make 
of  Ireland  a  nation  again,  or  there  will  soon  be  no  Ireland. 
The  future  depends  upon  the  people  !  " 

How  the  people  of  Ireland  have  replied  to  these 
exhortations,  how  Irish  hearts  have  beaten  high,  and  Irish 
consciences  awakened  in  response  to  this  appeal,  can  best 
be  gauged  by  a  reflection  upon  the  progress  of  the  Gaelic 
League  during  the  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  its  existence. 
Though  still  growing,  it  has  already  in  Ireland  964 
branches, 3  local  and  popular  centres  of  activity,  whose 
work  it  is  to  spread  the  national  idea  and  the  national 
language   by   every   means,    and   to   make    them   active 

3  At  the  head  of  the  League  is  a  President,  Dr.  Hyde,  two  Vice- 
Presidents,  and  an  Executive  Council  (Coiste  Gnotha)  of  45  members. 
Each  affiliated  branch  (Craobh)  must  pay  an  annual  assessment,  varying 
according  to  the  number  of  its  members.  In  1900  there  were  as  yet 
only  120  branches  affiliated  to  the  League  ;  in  1902,  412.  Several 
branches  can  join  together  to  form  a  District  Council  (Coiste  Ceanntair) 
which  directs  local  action  on  a  larger  scale,  organises  festivals  or 
feiseanna,  calls  together  propagandist  meetings,  entertains  organisers, 
teachers,  etc.     In  1903  there  were  26  Coiste  Ceanntair;    in  1906  there 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  405 

factors  in  the  every-day  life  of  the  family  and  social  circle. 
Their  primary  dmy  is  to  organise  Irish  language  classes 
for    the   benefit   of   their   members.      These    classes    are 
practical  above   all  in   their   scope,    and   are   conducted 
sometimes  by  paid  teachers  and  sometimes  by  generous 
volunteers  whose  work  is  almost  always  good,  thanks  to 
the    very    intelligent    methods    which    the    League    has 
invented  and  furnished  them  with,  and  thanks  also  to  the 
excellent  little  lesson-books,  drawn  up  by  the  late  Father 
O'Growney,  and   sold   by   the   League  at  a  few  pence  a 
volume.     Such  a  teacher  in  the  country  manages,  on  his 
rounds,   to   hold   a  dozen   classes   or  so  regularly  every 
week.     There    are    special     classes     for     workmen,     for 
students,  for  ladies  ;    special    classes  for    beginners,  for 
veterans,  Irish  history  classes,  singing  and  even  dancing 
classes,  where  the  old  national  airs  are  taught  and  the 
national  reel   and   jig.       Should  we    also   mention   this 
touching  fact  :    the  existence  of  an  Irish  class  for  the 
blind  children  of  St.  Mary's  Hospice  in  Dublin  ? 

In  the  summer,  during  holiday  time,  the  enthusiasts  of 
Irish  speech  come  together  in  the  western  villages  for  the 
Sgoil  Saoire  (Summer  School).  There  their  teachers  are 
the  old  peasants,  from  whom  they  learn  not  only  the 
correct  accent,  the  music  of  the  language  but  the  spirit 
and  tradition  of  ancient  Irish  culture,  of  which  these 
peasants,  who,  from  generation  to  generation,  have 
gathered  up  the  songs  and  legends  of  former  times,  are 
the  most  faithful  guardians.  In  the  summer  also  the 
Seilge  are  organised,  that  is  to  say,  excursions  to  places 
of  historical  interest,  with  national  sports  and  recreations. 
A  seilg  in  Galway  in  190 1  was  attended  by  no  less  than 
2,000  pilgrims.     In  the  winter  evenings  each  branch  holds 

were  49.  Each  branch  (Craobh)  and  each  Coiste  Ceanntair  annually 
sends  a  certain  number  of  delegates  to  the  Ard  Fheis  (or  Congress  of 
the  League),  which  meets  in  Dublin,  decides  questions  of  importance, 
and  elects  the  members  of  the  Coiste  Gnotha.  The  League  publishes 
an  annual  statement  (in  Irish).  The  receipts  for  1905-6  reached 
£4,966  sterling  (of  which  £1,915  came  from  the  sale  of  books  and 
brochures),  plus  £10,000  collected  by  Douglas  Hyde  in  the  course  of 
an  American  tour. 


406        POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION. 

reunions  from  time  to  time,  lectures  (seanchus),  followed 
by  discussions  upon  Irish  subjects,  concerts  (sgoruidheacht), 
with  choirs,  Irish  dances  and  songs,  and  ceilidhe,  informal 
meetings  on  the  lines  of  ancient  village  gatherings,  where 
serious  conversation — in  Irish — alternates  with  music  or 
a  "  recital,"  that  is  to  say,  a  story  or  a  piece  of  news, 
told,  according  to  popular  custom,  by  the  author  or  a 
raconteur.  Every  year  the  Gaelic  and  National  Festival, 
that  of  St.  Patrick,  is  celebrated  throughout  Ireland,  but 
notably  in  Dublin,  by  a  monster  procession  in  which  the 
heads  of  the  League  are  followed  by  its  enthusiasts.  In 
it  students,  priests,  women  and  children,  athletic  clubs 
and  boys'  brigades,  all  march  with  solemn  step  to  the 
sound  of  the  old  national  airs.  The  day  is  a  Bank  Holiday, 
and  even  the  public  houses  are  in  many  cases  closed.  Irish 
sermons  are  preached  in  the  churches  and  in  the  Catholic 
Pro-Cathedral  of  Dublin.  Finally,  every  year  the  League 
has  its  Gaelic  festivals,  first  those  locally  organised  by  the 
League  branches  under  the  name  of  Feis,  then  the 
provincial  Feiseanna,  lastly,  the  national  festival  or 
Oireachtas,  which  is  annually  held  in  Ireland,  in  the 
month  of  August,  with  great  pomp,  and  the  giving  of  a 
number  of  prizes  and  awards,  in  memory  of  an  institution 
that  flourished  in  Ireland's  artistic  past,  like  the  Welsh 
Eisteddfodd  and  the  Scotch  Mod.  There  one  views  or  takes 
part  in  competitions  in  Irish  poetry,  Irish  speech-making, 
literary  and  historical  essays,  Irish  comedy,  Irish  songs, 
dances  and  recitals  ;  and  these  are  almost  always 
interesting  in  that  they  bear  witness  to  a  true  natural 
taste,  a  delicate  sentiment,  and  an  absence  of  coarseness 
and  vulgarity  on  the  part  of  the  performers,  whether  these 
be  of  the  peasant  or  the  middle  class. 

AD  this  shows  clearly  enough  how  serious  is  the 
movement,  how  great  is  its  influence  over  the  people. 
A  start — the  first  and  greatest  difficulty — has  been  made, 
and  now  the  League  is  a  power  in  Ireland.  It  sells 
annually  20,000  Gaelic  books  and  pamphlets,  in  which  are 
included  editiones  principes  of  the  poets  of  the  eighteenth 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  407 

century,  and  new  Irish  publications,  tales,  and  novels. 
Its  financial  resources  are  moderate.  They  represent, 
however,  the  spontaneous  obol  of  the  poor  ;  and  a  large 
part  of  the  annual  subscription  to  the  Language  Fund, 
during  St.  Patrick's  week,  is  made  up  of  pence  and  of 
half -pence. 

From  the  start  the  League  has  had  the  good  sense 
officially  to  declare  that  it  was  both  necessary  and 
desirable  that  it  should  stand  apart  from  all  political  and 
religious  struggles  ;  such  has  been  its  line  of  conduct, 
and  now  within  it  are  found  representatives  of  every 
party,  from  the  strongest  Orangemen  to  the  fiercest 
Separatists.  The  majority  of  its  members  are  Catholic 
and  Nationalist,  and  in  its  ranks  are  a  number  of  priests. 
Yet  the  president,  in  the  person  of  Dr.  Hyde,  is  a 
Protestant,  and  one  of  its  strongest  supporters  was  a 
leader  of  the  Belfast  Orangemen,  the  late  Dr.  Kane,  who 
well  said  that  though  he  was  a  Unionist  and  a  Protestant, 
he  did  not  forget  that  he  was  an  O'Cahan.  Lastly,  it  is 
marvellous  to  notice  how  the  League,  and  through  it  the 
language  movement,  has  spread  through  all  those  Irelands, 
small  and  great,  that  Irish  emigration  has  created  abroad  ; 
to  London  and  to  some  great  English  towns  (such  as 
Oxford),  where  there  are  very  active  branches  at  work 
to-day,  to  Australia,  to  New  Zealand,  to  South  America 
(especially  in  Buenos  Ayres)  ;  above  all  to  the  United 
States,  where  all  the  "  Celtic  Societies  "  so  numerous  and 
varied  in  character,  have  constituted  themselves  into  the 
"  American  Gaelic  League."  Is  it  known  that  a  short 
while  ago  there  actually  existed  in  Paris  a  class  for  Modern 
Irish  at  the  Irish  College  ?  And  what  indeed  may  we  not 
expect  from  a  movement  which  thus  unites  the  children 
of  Erin  in  one  country  and  another,  in  one  continent  and 
another,  wherever  need,  or  ambition,  or  the  curse  of 
England  has  driven  them  ? 

To-day  the  delicate  point  of  action  for  the  League  is, 
geographically  speaking,  to  be  found  in  Western  Ireland, 
on    the    Atlantic    seaboard,    where    Irish    is    still    the 


4o8  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

everyday  mother-tongue,  but  where  its  use  is 
declining,  the  tendency  being  to  despise  it  and  to  put  it 
away  as  old-fashioned.  The  key  of  the  work  to  which 
the  League  has  set  itself  is  to  be  found  in  the  preservation 
of  the  Irish  language  where  it  is  still  naturally  alive. 
And  the  day  when  this  natural  life  is  broken  and  Irish 
becomes-  everywhere  a  dead  language  must  also  be  the 
day  of  death  for  the  Gaelic  Revival,  however  great  the 
will  to  create  anew.  Now  to  force  those  who  are 
abandoning  Irish,  who  are  ashamed  of  it,  to  re-adopt  and 
honour  it  again,  is  a  difficult  work  and  one  that  needs  a 
great  effort.  The  League  has  not  made  much  headway 
here,  though  it  has  good  hope  of  success.  In  the  South 
and  in  the  East  of  Ireland  the  movement,  on  the  contrary, 
is  on  the  right  road.  Dublin,  which  fifteen  years  ago 
only  possessed  a  dozen  or  so  Gaelic  speakers,  now  boasts 
of  ten  thousand. 

The  gentry  are  influenced  by  the  movement,  and  they 
either  incline  to  accept  its  teaching,  or,  by  way  of 
reaction,  anglicise  themselves  once  and  for  all.  Converts 
to  the  League  have  been  gained  in  great  numbers  even 
in  Ulster  ;  Belfast  has  now  a  Gaelic  Review,  Uladh,  and, 
like  Dublin,  an  Irish  Theatre.  There  are  few  Feiseanna 
more  successful  than  those  held  in  the  frontier  towns, 
washed  by  the  river  Bann,  ordinarily  the  theatres  of  the 
most  violent  combats  between  Orangemen  and  Nationalists. 

Since  it  is  certain  that  any  movement  in  Ireland  that 
is  supported  by  the  priests  is  assured  of  success,  it  is  a 
good  augury  that  the  Catholic  clergy,  the  great  moral 
force  of  the  country,  should  be  going  with  the  tide.  No 
doubt,  the  new  tendencies  are  still  resisted  here  and  there, 
especially  where  the  priest  is  of  a  certain  age,  and,  having 
been  brought  up  on  other  and  somewhat  reactionary  ideas, 
lacks  the  quickness  of  mind  or  the  courage  necessary  for 
the  understanding  and  the  propagation  of  a  new  point  of 
view.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  seminary  of  Maynooth 
is  to-day,  with  Dublin,  the  chief  Gaelic  centre  in  Ireland. 
Owing  to  the  influence  of  the  late  Father  O'Growney,  and 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  409 

now  of  Dr.  O'Hickey,  formerly  Vice-President  of  the 
League,  the  young  students  of  Maynooth  have,  during  the 
last  ten  years,  become  passionate  supporters  of  the  old 
language.  They  give  Irish  entertainments,  and  publish 
an  Irish  annual,  the  organ  of  their  Gaelic  Union  of  St. 
Columba.  Pastoral  Letters  are  now  communicated  in 
Irish.  A  priest,  in  the  West,  sets  himself  to  learn  Irish, 
and  in  three  years  is  able  to  preach  in  the  language. 
It  should  be  mentioned,  too,  that  Cardinal  Logue  and  the 
Archbishop  of  Dublin,  Dr.  Walsh,  are,  like  a  great 
number  of  their  brethren  on  the  episcopal  bench,  firm 
supporters  of  the  Gaelic  cause. 

There  are  other  encouraging  signs  which  a  traveller  in 
Ireland  may  perceive  at  first  sight,  as,  for  instance,  the 
number  of  people  who  speak  Irish  in  the  streets  and 
even  in  cities  such  as  Dublin,  which  a  short  while  ago 
were  thoroughly  Anglicised.  He  will  see  signboards, 
announcements,  advertisements,  printed  in  Irish,  Irish 
articles  published  every  day  in  most  of  the  newspapers, 
names  of  streets  written  up  in  Irish  by  order  of  the  local 
authorities,  who,  moreover,  often  require  of  their  employes 
a  knowledge  of  the  national  language. 4  Further  evidence 
he  will  find  in  the  demand  for  Irish  publications,  such  as 
the  League's  two  periodicals,  An  Claideamh  Soluis  and 
Irisleabhar  na  Gaedhilge,  and  the  Gaelic  leaflets  that 
appear  in  such  abundance.  He  will  also  notice  the  pleiad 
of  Gaelic  societies  that  have  risen  by  the  side,  and  at  the 
example  of  the  League,  such  as  Cumann  na  nGaedheal, 
the  Separatist  Society,  and  the  Woman's  Club,  Inghinidhe 
na  hEireann  (Daughters  of  Erin),   all  of  which  have  in 

4  The  Gaelic  League  hopes  that  in  time  public  meetings,  discussions, 
political  and  otherwise,  may  be  held  in  Irish  ;  that  Irish  may  become 
the  official  language  of  government,  of  commerce  and  exchange.  We 
are  still  far  from  this  point,  if  it  will  ever  be  reached.  Not  long  ago  the 
Government  used  to  put  the  law  in  motion,  fine,  and  even  sometimes 
imprison,  people  who  had  the  audacity  to  write  their  names  in  Irish 
on  the  collars  of  their  dogs  or  on  their  carts  ;  the  Post  Office  was  a 
short  while  ago  (and,  perhaps,  is  still),  at  open  war  with  the  Gaelic 
League  and  its  supporters  on  the  question  of  addresses  in  Irish  on 
parcels,  luggage,  etc.  Let  us  hope  that  the  Liberal  Government  will 
abandon  such  petty  persecution. 


4io  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

view  national  revival  on  the  basis  of  the  national  language 
and  the  return  to  Gaelic  traditions. 

But  the  stranger  is  most  forcibly  struck  when  he  attends 
some  Irish  class  in  a  poor  quarter  of  Dublin,  or  even  of 
London,  and  perceives  how  serious,  deep,  and  infectious 
is  the  enthusiasm  of  the  crowd,  young  and  old,  clerks  and 
artisans  for  the  most  part — with  an  "  intellectual  "  here 
and  there — who  are  gathered  together  in  the  ill-lit  hall. 
To  these  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  thought  of  learning 
anything,  and  above  all  of  learning  a  language  other  than 
English,  would  never  have  occurred  in  other  times,  but 
now  after  their  day's  work,  they  sit  here  with  an 
O'Growney  in  their  hands,  with  shining  eyes,  and  strained 
looks,  greedily  listening  to  the  lesson,  following  with 
their  lips,  con  amove,  the  soft  speech  of  their  teacher. 
Evidently  here  are  people  who  have  been  transformed 
to  the  core  of  their  being  by  this  somewhat  severe  study, 
and  by  the  importance  of  the  social  role  which  they  wish 
to  play,  and  which  in  fact  they  do  play.  Here,  as 
elsewhere,  the  Gaelic  movement  has  given  an  object,  a 
goal,  an  ideal,  to  lives  which,  from  their  conditions,  are 
often  empty  in  these  respects.  Those  who  are  in  a 
position  to  know  say  indeed  that  few  people  of  national 
feeling  have  taken  up  the  study  of  Irish  without  being 
quickly  aware  of  its  strengthening  and  stimulating 
influence,  without  being  fascinated  by  it  as  by  a  revelation. 
This  shows  that  the  language  is  for  the  children  of  Erin 
neither  a  dead  language  nor  a  strange  one,  but  an  integral 
part  of  their  nature,  a  second  self,  an  element  of  themselves 
that  they  had  forgotten.  The  English  which  they  speak 
with  a  remarkable  native  accent  is,  as  has  often  been 
remarked,  an  English  learnt  from  books,  and  full  of 
absurd  Irishisms  which  have  remained  locked  up  within 
their  brains,  a  heritage  of  which  they  were  not  aware  ;  it 
is  an  English  built  artificially  upon  a  Gaelic  substructure. 
Even  if  one  compares  the  eloquence  of  a  Burke  or  a 
Grattan  to  that  of  a  Pitt  or  a  Fox,  one  is  forced  to  avow 
that    the    one    has    in    it    something   which   the   other 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  411 

has  not,  something  fictitious  and  studied.  "  Personally," 
writes  Miss  Eleanor  Hull,  Secretary  of  the  Irish  Texts 
Society  of  London,  "  I  may  say  that  the  study  of  Irish 
exercises  over  me  a  fascination  which  I  have  never 
experienced  in  learning  any  other  modern  tongue,  and  I 
find  that  it  has  the  same  immense  interest  for  our  students 
here  (in  London)  ...  It  appears  to  exercise  both  an 
intellectual  and  moral  influence  over  our  students. "5 

Again  an  Irish  lady  student  writes "  When  I 

began  to  learn  Irish,  I  felt  as  though  the  words  were  not 
unfamiliar  to  me,  and  my  mind  went  out  naturally  to 
them.  I  felt  as  if  they  were  drawing  out  of  me  something 
that  I  had  not  known  was  there.  It  seemed  to  me  that 
till  then  I  had  not  been  myself,  and  was  now  finding 
myself  ;  or  that  underlying  what  I  had  been  there  was 
another  self  with  possibilities  of  thought  and  feeling  and 
expression  that  I  had  been  totally  unconscious  of."6 

In  this  way  one  can  understand  the  mental  upheaval 
which  is  the  accompaniment  of  the  Irish  language 
movement.  The  Irish  mind  which,  in  the  fever  of 
anglicisation  formerly  grew  barren,  discovers  with  its  own 
mode  of  expression  a  new  ardour  and  a  new  activity. 
The  national  language  is  an  intellectual  stimulant  which 
widens  and  quickens  the  intelligence  and  shakes  the  soul 

to  its  depths "  The  bulk  of  Irish  minds  (as  the 

Gaelic  League  has,  I  think,  conclusively  proved),"  writes 
Dr.  Douglas  Hyde,  "  can  only  be  emotionalised  through 
their  own  ancestral  culture  ;    but  once  emotionalised  in 

5  Intermediate  Education  (Ireland)  Commission,  Appendix  to  the  Final 
Report,  p.  484.  See  in  its  entirety  the  letter  of  Miss  Hull,  author  of 
The  Cuchullain  Saga  (London  1899),  and  of  several  other  works,  in 
The  Irish  Language  and  Irish  Intermediate  Education  (Gaelic  League 
pamphlet  No.  15). 

à  Intermediate  Education  (Ireland)  Commission,  Appendix  to  the  Final 
Report,  p.  484  (quoted  by  Dr.  Hyde).  Cf.  The  Irish  Language  and 
Intermediate  Education  (Gaelic  League  pamphlet  No.  15),  p.  6.  See  in 
To-day  and  To-morrow  in  Ireland,  London  1903  (p.  87,  et  seq.),  Mr. 
Stephen  Gwynn's  account  of  his  studies  at  an  Irish  class  in  London 
taught  by  a  policeman,  a  native  of  Kerry.  At  one  time,  Mr.  O'Donnell, 
M.P.,  held  an  Irish  class  at  Westminster  for  the  benefit  of  his  colleagues, 
of  the  Irish  party.  Mr.  William  O'Brien  learnt  Irish  while  in  prison 
during  the  agrarian  wars. 


412  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

this  way,  they  are    open    to    many  further    impressions 
from   without."" 

Let  it  be  added  that  if  the  man  has  made  the  language, 
the  language  in  its  turn  has  reacted  upon  the  man.  The 
national  language  embodies  and  enshrines  the  national 
genius,  inspires  it  and  propagates  it,  forms  the  national 
mind  and  determines  the  national  atmosphere.  Morality 
itself,  by  a  curious  psychological  effect,  is  sensibly  the 
gainer  with  the  return  of  the  old  language,  of  the  rich 
vocabulary  which  Celtic  civilisation  had  created  in  its 
image  and  charged  with  force,  beauty,  and  idealism,  and 
which  comes  to-day  to  restore  to  new  generations,  with 
the  spirit  of  the  past,  its  traditional  teaching  and  its 
moral  "deposit."  To  take  one  example  :  Ireland  possesses 
what  England  does  not  possess,  a  word  meaning  patrie. 
Must  not  this  word  when  it  sounds  upon  Irish  lips 
revive  a  corresponding  thought  in  Irish  hearts  ?  So  in 
these  days  of  coarse  materialism,  Gaelic  is  for  the 
Gaels  an  intellectual  stimulant  and  a  moral  antiseptic. 
In  finding  again  her  language  Ireland  finds  again  her 
soul.  A  new  spirit  indeed  breathes  with  the  spirit  of  the 
past  through  Erin,  and  this  new  spirit  is  all  the  more 
precious,  say  observers,  in  that  it  alone  has  power  to 
fight  against  the  evil  of  scepticism  which  is  menacing 
Ireland.  This  is  a  malady  of  growth  and,  apart  from 
the  artificial  and  mechanical  system  of  education  that  is 
in  full  vigour  to-day,  may  result  from  an  increase  of 
material  prosperity,  and,  consequently  perhaps,  from  a 
decline  of  religious  feeling. 


III. — Anti-Celticism. 

Nevertheless,  a  "  new  spirit  "  cannot  yet  be  said  to 
dominate  Ireland.  So  far  the  League  stands  for  a  small 
minority  only — influential  though  this  minority  be  by 
reason     of     its     enthusiasm     and     crusading     strength. 

7  University  Commission,  Evidence,  III.,  p.  318. 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  413 

Marshalled  on  the  other  side  is  a  large  and  indifferent 
majority  :  bourgeois  and  noblemen  who  have  become 
too  Anglicised  to  understand  the  profound  significance  of 
the  movement  ;  business-men  who  say  that  Irish  has  no 
commercial  value,1  and  that  an  Irish-speaking  Ireland 
would  not  be  the  richer  by  a  penny,  while  remaining 
more  than  ever  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world  ; 
men  of  little  faith,  who  see  in  the  revival  of  a  dead 
language  but  a  fashion,  a  harmless  pose  ;  men  of  little 
energy,  lovers  of  vain  rhetoric  or  raimeis  who  ever 
confound  speech  with  action  ;  and  lastly,  politicians 
who,  favourable  though  they  may  be  to  the  new  ideas, 
are,  now  and  then,  somewhat  jealous  of  the  League  as 
of  a  power  which  claims  without  their  help  to  be  able  to 
save  the  nation. 

But  this  passive  opposition  is  a  slight  matter  compared 
to  the  irreducible  hostility  of  a  little  knot  of  powerful 
and  avowed  anti-Celticists,  the  violence  of  whose  assault 
has  clearly  shown  that,  in  Ireland,  if  not  in  England,  the 
enemies  of  the  movement  have  well  apprehended  its  sig- 
nificance though  they  may  affect  to  ridicule  it.  Supported 
by  a  large  portion  of  English  opinion  which  is  hardly 
more  in  sympathy  now  with  things  Celtic  than  it  was 
half  a  century  ago  when  the  Times  censured  Matthew 
Arnold  for  his  views  on  The  Study  of  Celtic  Literature,2 
their  centre  of  operation  in  Ireland  is  the  old  University 
of  Dublin,  Trinity  College.  It  was  from  the  height  of 
those  venerable  walls  that  war  was  declared  eight  or  ten 
years  ago,  the  propitious  occasion  being  furnished  by  the 
meeting  in  Dublin  of  the  Commission  of  Enquiry  into 
secondary  education. 3 

1  Note,  on  the  other  hand,  the  conclusions  arrived  at  in  a  memorandum 
published  in  1905  by  Mr.  C.  H.  Oldham,  the  Head  of  the  School  cf 
Commerce  at  Rathmines,  and  published  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction.  He  recommends 
the  teaching  of  Irish  for  the  sake  of  the  facility  of  acquisition  of  other 
living  languages  imparted  by  the  study  of  Irish,  which  is  the  richest 
of  modern  languages  alike  from  the  grammatical  and  from  the  phonetic 
point  of  view. 

2  The  Study  of  Celtic    Literature,   by  Matthew    Arnold,  1867,  London 

3  Intermediate  Education  (Ireland)    Commission,  1898  to  1899. 


414        POSSIBILITIES    OF   REGENERATION. 

The  attack  was  very  lively.  Here  are  the  views  of 
the  most  notable  of  the  Irish  anti-Celticists,  especially 
Dr.  Mahaffy,  the  illustrious  scholar  and  Senior  Fellow 
of  Trinity  College.  "  Artificially  "  to  revive  the  Irish 
language,  would  be  ''  a  retrograde  step,  a  return  to  the 
dark  ages,  to  the  Tower  of  Babel  ;  "  it  would  be  a 
"  mischievous  "  thing,  if  it  were  not,  to  begin  with,  an 
"  impracticable  thing."  Modern  Irish  "  is  without 
educational  value,"  and  at  the  most  some  words  of  it 
may  be  "  useful  to  a  man  fishing  for  salmon  or  shooting 
grouse  in  the  West."  To  begin  with,  what  is  meant  by 
"  modern     Irish  "  ?  "  God     knows,"     answers     Mr. 

Atkinson,  professor  of  philology  in  Trinity  College.  It  is 
not  a  language,  "  not  good  enough  for  a  patois.  I  should 
call  it  an  imbroglio,  melange,  an  omnium  gatherum." 
Taken  as  a  whole,  according  to  Professor  Mahaffy,  the 
Gaelic  movement  is  a  childish  and  factitious  movement, 
merely  a  plaything  for  the  people,  invented  by  rebels 
who  are  trying  to  foment  anti- British  feeling,  and  to 
accentuate  the  separation  between  Ireland  and  England, 
and  who  know  that  Home  Rule  is  "  only  a  question  of 
time  provided  they  can  nourish  separation  in  sentiment, 
and  revive  the  hitherto  decreasing  sense  of  contrast  in 
race  by  establishing  contrast  in  language."  As  to  what 
is  called  Celtic  Literature,  Mr.  Mahaffy  has  no  expression 
strong  enough  for  its  condemnation  ;  he  affirms,  on  the 
authority  of  those  who  know,  that  outside  religious 
writings  there  are  no  Irish  writings  which  are  not  either 
"  silly  or  indecent."  His  colleague,  Mr.  Atkinson,  upholds 
him  with  his  authority  in  declaring  that  all  this  old 
literature  is  "  almost  intolerably  low  in  tone."  "  Never," 
he  says,  "  let  your  children  be  brought  into  contact  with 
this."  And  he  adds,  in  conclusion,  this  phrase, 
extraordinary  indeed  in  the  mouth  of  a  philologist  ; 
"  All  folk-lore  is  at  the  bottom  abominable." 4 

4  See  Dr.  Mahafiy's  and  Dr.  Atkinson's  Evidence  in  the  Appendix  to 
the  Final  Report  Intermediate  Education  (Ireland)  Commission,  Dublin, 
1899,  p.  31  et  seq.,  637  et  seq.    Cf.  the  article   by  Dr.  Mahaffy,  The  Recent 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  415 

The  effect  of  this  criticism  was  not  such  as  their  authors 
expected.  "  Its  own  very  lack  of  moderation  condemns 
it."  So  wrote  Professor  Zimmer,  of  Greifswald,  one  of 
the  European  philologists  whose  testimony,  with  that  of 
Dottin  of  Rennes,  Windisch  of  Leipzig,  Stern  of  Berlin, 
H.  Pedersen  of  Copenhagen,  and  others,  was  invoked  by 
the  Gaelic  party  in  Ireland  to  refute  the  attacks  of  the 
anti-Celticists  of  Trinity  College.  All  these  scholars  did 
full  homage  to  the  ancient  literature  of  Ireland.  Moreover 
they  recognised  the  philological  richness  of  the  modern 
Irish  language,  its  educational  value  and  its  importance 
from  the  point  of  view  of  higher  Celtic  studies. 5  In 
reality  the  attacks  of  the  anti-Ce]ticists  were  made  for 
reasons  which  were  far  more  political  than  literary.  It 
was  hoped,  as  Mr.  Mahaffy  said,  "  to  kill  with  ridicule," 
to  kill  the  Irish  language  itself,  and  thus  stop  at  all  costs 
this  Gaelic  movement  which  had  sprung  up  so  untowardly 
at  the  eleventh  hour  to  thwart  the  great  work  of  the 
Anglicisation  of  Ireland.  Now  what  surer  means  could 
there  be  of  killing   the  language  than  by  the  exclusion 

Fuss  about  the  Irish  Language  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  Review,  August. 
1899,  from  which  we  have  made  various  extracts. 

5  See  the  extracts  from  the  letters  of  foreign  scholars  quoted  bv  Dr. 
Hyde  in  his  Evidence  before  the  Intermediate  Education  (Ireland) 
Commission,  pp.  485  and  487.  See  letters  in  full  in  the  Gaelic  League 
Pamphlets,  Nos.  15  and  16. 

We  may  quote  from  these  witnesses  notably  on  the  subject  of  the 
educational  value  of  the  Irish  language  for  the  youth  of  Ireland. 

Dr.  Zimmer  of  Greifswald  recalls  how  Frederick  the  Great  said  of 
the  Niebelungen,  that  such  pitiable  work,  étendes  Zeug,  was  not  worth 
a  single  charge  of  powder,  and  did  not  deserve  to  be  drawn  out  of  the 
dust  of  oblivion.  He  continues  as  follows  :  "  With  regard  to  the 
Irish  language  as  a  subject  of  instruction  in  the  Intermediate  Education 
system  of  Ireland,  I  know  of  no  other  modern  language  which,  regarded 
purely  as  a  language,  possesses  a  higher  educational  value  than  modern 
Irish  for  a  boy  who  knows  English.  Practically,  and  from  the  point 
of  view  of  modern  literature,  a  knowledge  of  French  or  German  to  him, 
outside  of  Ireland,  would  certainly  be  more  valuable,  but  for  thorough 
education  and  schooling  of  the  mind  (i.e.,  of  the  intellect)  Irish  stands 
at  the  very  least  on  a  level  with  the  two  above-named  languages  ;  in 
fact  it  is  in  very  many  respects  superior  to  them,  because  it  is  more 
characteristic  and  consequently  gives  more  matter  for  thought  .   .   .   .  " 

Dr.  Windisch  of  Leipzig  pointed  out  the  value  of  Irish  in  that  it  must 
help  to  maintain  in  the  Irish  people  their  intellectual  characteristics. 
Cf.  also  the  opinions  of  M.  Georges  Dottin,  of  the  University  of  Rennes. 


4i6  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

of  it  from  the  system  of  education  ?  In  practice, 
therefore,  it  was  this  question  of  the  teaching  of  Irish 
in  the  schools  and  colleges  that  was  to  bring  about  the 
battle,  and  round  which,  in  fact,  the  battle  has  raged 
between  the  anti-Celticists  on  the  one  side  who  wish  to 
Anglicise  the  education  of  the  children,  andthe  pioneers 
of  the  Gaelic  Renaissance  on  the  other,  who  wish  to 
nationalise  education  as  all  else,  and  more  than  all  else. 
This  battle  must,  in  the  long  run,  determine  the  failure  or 
success  of  the  movement,  and  decide  whether  a  national 
spirit  or  its  reverse  shall  exist  in  the  next  generation. 
Now,  it  must  be  noticed,  that  on  this  domain  of 
education  the  anti-Celticists  had  the  advantage  over  their 
adversaries  by  reason  of  the  predominant  position  of  their 
leaders  on  the  central  Boards,  the  Board  of  National 
Education  and  the  Board  of  Intermediate  Education. 
Controlling  the  syllabuses  and  finances  through  these 
Boards,  they  control  the  entire  school  system  of  Ireland, 
higher  education  alone  excepted.  These  two  Boards 
we  have  said,  tried  to  ignore,  and  to  make  the  Irish  ignore, 
all  that  concerns  Ireland,  her  history,  her  language  ; 
they  discouraged  the  teaching  of  Irish  to  the  limits  of 
their  power  without  daring  actually  to  prohibit  it.  For 
ten  years  they  have  on  this  account  expeiienced  the 
League's  attacks.  They  have  yielded  when  they  were 
forced  to  yield  ;  when  an  opportunity  has  occurred,  they 
have  taken  back  their  concessions,  so  that  in  the  end 
the  League,  if  it  has  gained  ground,  has  gained  it  but 
slowly  and  with  much  difficulty.  An  example  may  be 
given  with  reference  to  secondary  education.  In  1901, 
following  the  nomination  of  Mr.  Mahaffy  to  membership 
of  the  Board  of  Intermediate  Education — a  nomination 
that  was  resented  as  a  personal  insult  by  all  Gaelic 
Ireland — this  Board,  without  daring  frankly  to  deny  Irish 
a  place  in  the  school  syllabus,  fixed  its  value  far  below 
that  of  French,  and  especially  that  of  German .  When 
the  League  raised  an  outcry  and  led  a  campaign  to  secure 
the  equality  of  Irish  with  English,  or  at  least  with  French 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  417 

and  German,  the  Board  beat  a  retreat,  but  none  the 
less  in  1904  they  excluded  Irish  from  the  Mathematical  and 
Experimental  Science  Courses.  Moreover,  German  was 
now  favoured,  at  the  expense  of  French,  by  special  prizes, 
to  the  great  indignation  of  the  Irish,  who  were  furious  at 
the  attempt  that  was  made,  they  said,  to  "  Teutonise  " 
them  !  In  the  primary  schools,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
League  gained  a  victory  in  1901,  when  it  secured  that 
Irish  teaching  (which  had  indeed  stood  on  the  syllabus 
since  1878,  but  was  a  dead  letter)6  should  be  given  to  the 
children  as  an  optional  extra,  either  in  school  hours  or 
outside  of  them,  and  that  in  this  latter  case  the  teachers 
should  be  paid  proportionally. 7  Soon,  however,  the 
Board  practically  negatived  its  first  concession  by  a  new 
circular.  This  resulted,  on  March  15th,  1904,  in  a  defeat 
of  the  Unionists  on  a  division  in  the  House  of  Commons — 
a  unique  event  in  the  ten  years'  reign  of  that  Government. 
Shortly  afterwards,  in  1905,  the  British  Treasury 
attempted,  on  its  own  authority,  to  deprive  the  Irish 
teachers  of  their  right  to  remuneration  for  the  teaching 
of  Irish.  Not  until  the  Liberal  Government  came  into 
office  was  this  study  restored  even  to  its  former  inadequate 
position.8 

The  most  serious  question,  still  hanging  in  suspense,  is 
that  of  primary  education  in  those  districts  where  Irish 
is  still  the  current  language.  Here  teaching  is  given  in 
English,  not  because  the  teacher  is  forbidden  to  use 
Irish,  but  because  he  is  generally  ignorant  of  it. 9     What 

6  Irish  might  be  taught  from  1878  as  an  extra  subject  but  outside 
school  hours,  and  only  to  children  in  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  classes,  that 
is  to  say,  in  the  higher  classes,  which  contain  scarcely  any  pupils,  since 
the  children  leave  the  school  before  reaching  them.  The  conditions 
were  practically  the  same  as  those  for  the  teaching  of  Latin. 

7  The  payment  was  10s.  per  scholar,  but  it  was  only  allowed  when 
the  teaching  was  given  outside  school  hours,  and  was  not  allowed  at 
all  for  standards  below  the  fourth. 

8  From  the  1st  of  July,  1906,  remuneration  has  been  allotted  to  the 
teacher  for  each  child  who  learns  Irish  at  the  rate  of  is.  or  2s.  6d., 
according  to  the  class.      This  rate  is  very  insufficient. 

9  From  1883  a  note  added  to  Rule  No.  40  of  the  National  Board 
allows  and  advises  teachers  and  inspectors  to  use  Irish  to  Irish-speaking 
children.  But  of  what  use  is  this  when  the  teachers  and  inspectors 
do  not  know  Irish  ? 

2  E 


4i8  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

the  League  demands  with  equal  energy  and  reason  is 
that  education  should  be  made  bilingual  in  such  districts, 
that  is  to  say,  that  without  the  exclusion  of  English, 
Irish  should  be  kept  in  the  programme,  and  that  the 
teacher  should  acquire  the  habit  of  using  it  in  teaching 
the  children  English  and  elementary  subjects.  The 
actual  state  of  things  is  a  scandal,  for  it  is  a  scandal  to 
teach  children  in  a  language  which  for  them  is  a  foreign 
language.  Professor  Atkinson,  that  extreme  anti-Celticist, 
has  declared,  "  It  is  wrong  to  children  not  to  teach  them 
in  their  own  mother-tongue."  IO  Does  not  bilingual 
teaching  succeed  wonderfully  in  Wales  ?  Watch  the 
morose  and  worried  faces  of  these  small  school-boys. 
They  do  not  understand  what  is  said  to  them,  for  an 
English  word  pronounced  by  the  master  awakens  no 
clear  idea  in  their  tiny  heads.  Sitting  motionless  on  the 
bench  they  learn  nothing,  and  never  open  their  mouths. 
Such  a  system  only  creates  illiterates.  And  that  is  what 
in  these  districts  is  called  education  !  All  competent 
people  agree  in  condemning  the  system.  In  the  year 
1900  two  hundred  managers,  representing  1,200  schools 
in  the  West  of  Ireland,  presented  a  Memorial  of  protest 
to  the  Board  responsible  for  this  condition  of  affairs  ; 
but  no  progress  was  made  until  Mr.  Wyndham,  as  Chief 
Secretary  for  Ireland  under  the  Conservative  Government, 
on  the  22nd  of  May,  1901,  supported  and  had  passed  in 
the  House  of  Commons  a  motion  in  favour  of  the  bilingual 
programme,  and  testified  himself  to  the  necessity  of 
enlarging  and  enlightening  the  mind  of  the  child  by  this 
means.  In  1904,  the  Board  of  National  Education  came 
to  reason  and  issued  a  fairly  good  programme  of  bilingual 
teaching  for  the  Irish-speaking  districts.  But  the  Board 
has  not  so  far  let  itself  be  persuaded  to  make  this 
programme  obligatory  and  to  see  that  it  is  effectively 
applied,  or  to  secure  that  a  sufficient    number  of  Irish- 

10  See  a  series  of  quotations  from  Professors  and  Teachers  on 
this  subject  in  the  Gaelic  League  Pamphlet  No.  2,  p.  3  et  seq.  Cf.  Dr. 
Hyde,  Literary  History  of  Ireland,  p.  631. 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  419 

speaking  teachers  are  turned  out  of  the  Training  Colleges.11 
To  all  claims  it  opposes  the  strength  of  inertia,  and  this 
strength  of  inertia  may  well,  one  day,  cost  it  dear,  as 
was  the  case  with  the  Board  of  Intermediate  Education 
for  its  hatred  of  Irish.  The  ill-will  of  these  two  authorities 
has,  indeed,  raised  up  against  them  a  violent  movement 
of  hostility.  On  every  side  there  is  a  cry  for  the 
abolition  of  these  anti-National,  irresponsible,  and 
autocratic  Boards.  As  for  the  Boards,  they  are  groups 
of  amateurs,  dominated  by  the  spirit  of  Trinity  College, 
and  recruited,  as  has  been  shown,  rather  from  judges, 
clergymen  and  wealthy  bourgeois,  than  from  competent 
men.  "Will  the  people  of  Ireland,"  asked  Mr.  Edward 
Marty n  a  short  time  ago,  "  allow  this  farce  to  be  played 
any  longer  ?  " 

The  language  war,  therefore,  continues  to  rage  in 
Ireland  just  as  sharply  as  in  Poland,  in  Bohemia,  or  in 
Alsace.  Who  will  win  ?  The  League,  or  the  Boards 
upheld  by  Trinity  College  ?  Anti-Celticism  or  the  Gaelic 
revival  ?  If  Ireland  wills  it,  the  victory  will  be  hers 
beyond  all  doubt.  Certainly  no  one  can  doubt  it  who 
observes  the  ardour  of  her  youth  in  the  study  of  the 
national  language,  and  who  knows,  to  speak  in  figures, 
that  there  are  now  2,551  Primary  schools  (1906)  teaching 
Irish  as  against  105  in  1899  ;  95,487  children  (1904) 
learning  Irish  in  the  schools  as  against  1,371  in  1899  ; 
2,800  entrants  for  the  Irish  examinations  of  the 
Intermediate  Board  in  1905,  as  against  272  in  1899  ; 
or  a  total  number  in  all  of  100,000  children  and  pupils 
studying  the  national  language  in  Ireland.12 

11  Gaelic  Ireland  ought  to  provide  for  herself  satisfactory  teachers 
from  her  own  point  of  view.  She  has  now  four  Training  Colleges  which 
give  certificates  of  competence  to  teach  Irish. 

2  In  many  dioceses  and  counties,  notab  y  in  those  of  Wexford, 
Killala  and  Mayo,  the  ecclesiastical  managers  have  undertaken  to 
engage  only  Irish  speakers  as  teachers. 

There  still  remains  the  question  of  higher  education.  There  is  in 
existence  in  Ireland  no  Chair  of  Irish  History.  There  are  three  or 
four  Chairs  of  thejlrish  language,  one  in  Trinity  College,  founded  by 
the  "  Society  for  the  Evangelical  Education  of  the  Irish  by  means  of 
their  National  Language  "  and  the  holders  of  this  Chair  have  always 


420  POSSIBILITIES  [OF    REGENERATION 


IV. — The   Literary  Awakening. 

There  is  more  in  the  Gaelic  Renaissance  than  the 
revival  of  the  language,  which  is  but  a  token  and  a  means. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  this  revival  should  have  provoked 
all  over  the  country — or  rather  that  there  should  have 
occurred  all  over  the  country,  along  with  the  Gaelic 
Renaissance  and  under  the  same  influences — a  remarkable 
flight  of  the  intellectual  aspirations  of  the  individual. 
We  see  in  Ireland  to-day  the  first  signs  of  a  new  and 
genuine  literary  movement  :  {  a  movement  which  is  the 
result  and  the  witness,  as  is  the  language  revival  itself, 
of  the  efforts  that  are  being  made  by  the  nation  to 
reconquer  its  mental  and  moral  independence,  and  the 
success  of  which  appears  necessary  if  that  of  the  language 
revival  is  to  be  assured.  For  it  is  evident  that  this 
Renaissance  could  not  come  to  fruition  if  it  were  not 
ceaselessly  sustained  and  vivified  by  contact  with  the 
national  literature.  Certainly  we  must  be  careful  foi  the 
present  not  to  exaggerate  the  results  which  we  may 
expect  from  this  intellectual  awakening  of  Ireland.  But 
it  is  necessary  to  note  the  results  which  already  lie  before 
our  eyes. 

It  was  by  a  return  to  the  sources  of  old  Celtic  literature 
that  this  movement  started,  now  twenty  or  thirty  years 
ago.  Ireland  had  possessed  during  the  nineteenth  century 
archaeologists  and  philologists  who  brought  to  life  the 
treasures  and  the  literary  splendour  of  past  times.  The 
names     of    O'Curry  and    O'Donovan    enjoyed,  in  the 

been  members  of  this  propagandist  society.  The  Gaelic  League  rightly 
insists  that  any  new  University,  if  it  is  to  be  national,  must  comprise 
the  teaching  of  the  language,  literature,  history  and  archaeology  of 
Ire  and.  The  League  has  already  begun  to  organise  on  its  own 
account  a  series  of  examinations  in  the  Gaelic  literature 
and  language.  (Cf.  the  institution  known  as  the  Fleming  Companionship 
organised  by  the  Gaelic  Leaguers  of  Cork). 

i  Ireland  had  no  lack  of  poets  and  thinkers  in  the  19th  century,  Dut 
what  is  new  to-day  is  the  growth  of  a  literary  school  derived,  perhaps, 
from  that  of  Davis  and  Young  Ireland,  but  very  different  in  many 
respects  and,  from  the  literary  point  of  view,  much  superior. 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  421 

middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  European  celebrity,  but 
these  scholars  lived  in  Ireland,  isolated  and  ignored.2 
Their  work  did  not  attract  the  attention  of  a  country 
which  was  then  in  the  throes  of  famine  and  agitation. 
In  this  connection,  Matthew  Arnold  tells  a  significant 
anecdote.  Thomas  Moore,  the  poet,  having  gone  to  see 
O'Curry,  found  his  friend  with  the  archaeologist  Pétrie, 
at  work,  before  a  collection  of  old  Irish  MSS.,  the  Book 
of  Bally  mote,  the  Yellow  Book  of  Lecan,  the  Annals  of 
the  Four  Masters.  Arnold  describes  the  astonishment  of 
Moore,  who  had  never  heard  of  these  documents,  and 
who,  when  their  character  was  explained  to  him,  gravely 
remarked  :  "  Pétrie,  these  volumes  were  not  written  by 
fools,  or  with  foolish  intentions,  and  I  had  no  right  to 
undertake  my  History  of  Ireland  in  ignorance  of  them. "3 
Things  have  changed  now.  For  thirty  years  a  strong 
national  current  has  been  running  in  favour  of  the  study, 
the  translation,  and  the  popularisation  of  the  ancient 
texts,  and  a  new  value  has  been  set  upon  the  unexploi+ed 
wealth  of  Irish  folk-lore.  What  Lady  Charlotte  Guest 
had  done  for  Wales,  what  Campbell  of  Islay  had  done  and 
what  Mr.  Alfred  Nutt  is  doing  for  Scotland,  many  have 
tried  to  do  for  Ireland,  such  as  Dr.  P.  W.  Joyce,  Standish 
O'Grady,  Larminie,  O'Donoghue,  Dr.  Sigerson,  Lady 
Gregory,  and  Dr.  Hyde  himself. 4  The  latter  has  spent 
many  years  in  Roscommon,  his  native  county,  and  in  the 
other  Western  counties,  where  he  has  gathered  from  the 
lips  of  the  peasants  popular  stories  and  songs,  new  and 
old,  and  in  them  has  found  material  for  a  dozen  volumes. 

2  O'Curry  was  a  Professor  in  the  Catholic  University  under  the 
Rectorate  of  Newman.     O'Doncvau  died  in  1861,  and  O'Curry  in  1862. 

3  Matthew  Arnold,  Study  of  Celtic  Literature,  II. 

4  See  P.  W.  Joyce,  Old  Celtic  Romances  (1879),  etc.  Larminie,  West 
Irish  Folk  Tales  (1898).  George  Sigerson,  Bards  of  the  Gael  and  Gall 
(1897).  Standish  Hayes  O'Grady,  Silva  Gadelica  (1892).  Standish 
O'Grady  (not  to  be  confounded  with  the  foregoing),  Finn  and  His 
Companions,  The  Coming  of  Cuchulain,  etc.  Lady  Gregory,  Poets  and 
Dreamers  (1903),  Cuchulain  of  Muirthemne,  Gods  and  Fighting  Men. 
The  principal  works  of  Douglas  Hyde,  Literary  History  of  Ireland 
(1899),  Beside  the  Fire  (1889),  Love  Songs  of  Connacht  (1894),  Religious 
Songs  of  Connacht  (1906),  Leabhar  Sgeuluidheachta,  Sgeuluidhe 
Gaodhalach,  Three  Sorrows  of  Story  Telling. 


422  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

More  recently  still,  there  has  been  in  Ireland  an  active 
encouragement  of  the  higher  Celtic  studies.  The  tradition 
had  been  lost  since  O'Donovan  and  0'Curry,5  and  it  is 
this  tradition  which  a  new  group  of  Irish  Celtic  scholars, 
Hyde,  Strachan,  Sweet,  Meyer,  Bergin,  Dinneen,  and 
others,  have  been  trying  to  regain.  These  scholars  are 
aware  of  the  advantages  which  a  knowledge  of  modern 
Irish  gives  in  the  study  of  Celtic  philology,  and  they  are 
conscious  also  of  the  power  which  will  be  added  to  the 
Gaelic  Renaissance  if  a  fine  school  of  Celtic  learning  comes 
into  existence  in  Ireland.  Chairs  of  Philology,  Phonetics, 
and  Irish  Paleography  have  been  founded,  and  three  years 
ago,  thanks  to  the  generous  help  of  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green,  a 
woman  as  patriotic  as  she  is  enlightened,  a  school  for 
Higher  Celtic  Study  was  opened  in  Dublin  under  the 
auspices  of  Professors  Strachan  and  Kuno  Meyer. 

Irish6  literature  is  thus  discovering,  little  by  little,  an 
imaginative  vein  of  great  wealth  The  fiist  results  accrued 
not  to  Irish  literature,  properly  speaking,  but  rather  to 
that  Anglo-Irish  school  which  had,  with  writeis  like  Miss 
Edgeworth,  Charles  Lever,  Carleton,  and  up  to  a  certain 
point  with  Thomas  Moore  himself,  been  drawing  for  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  closer  and  closer  to 
English  models  and  to  the  taste  of  the  English  public. 
Thomas  Davis  and  the  lofty  thinkers  of  Young  Ireland 
had,  it  is  true,  tried  to  infuse  into  Irish  literature  a  really 
patriotic  and  national  spirit  ;  but  though  their  influence 
is  very  marked  in  the  lyric  poetry  of  a  Clarence  Mangan, 
in  the  epic  poetry  of  a  Samuel  Ferguson,  in  the  political 
poetry  of  a  T.  D.  Sullivan,  or  in  the  revolutionary  poetty 
of  a  Kickham,  or  an  Ellen  O'Leary,  their  work  was  too 
soon  interrupted  to  bear  its  full  fruit.  Ireland  has  taken 
up  again  the  broken  thread  of  this  work,  as  if  in  tardy 

5  It  is  only  fair  to  say  that  Hennessy,  Todd  and  Reeves,  in  this 
interval,  maintained  the  honour  of  Celtic  Studies  in  Ireland.  But  there 
is  an  immense  and  unexplored  wealth  of  MSS.  still  untouched  in  Ireland 
itself.  In  the  Irish  Academy  at  Dublin  1,500  MSS.  are  waiting  to  be 
published,  and  even  to  be  catalogued. 

(>The  School  of  Irish  Learning,  which  publishes  a  review,  Eriu,  on 
the  model  of  the  Revue  Celtique. 


THE    GAELIC   MOVEMENT  423 

response  to  the  teachings  of  Davis.  With  the  foundation 
by  Sir  C.  G.  Duffy,  the  friend  and  collaborator  of  Davis, 
of  the  Dublin  Magazine  in  1887,  and  a  little  while 
after  with  the  formation  of  two  Irish  Literary  Societies, 
one  in  London  and  the  other  in  Dublin,  a  new  breath  of 
life  passed  through  Anglo-Irish  literature.  This  literature 
is  now  steeped  in  the  sources  of  inspiration  of  the  poems 
and  legends  of  the  past  ;  it  echoes  that  "  Celtic  note  " 
which  had  so  profoundly  influenced  Swinburne  and 
Tennyson,  and  is  blossoming  forth  in  a  splendid 
florescence  of  poetry.  Standish  O'Grady,  T.  W.  Rolleston, 
Larminie,  Miss  Nora  Hopper  give  new  life  and  form  to 
the  old  myths,  following  thus  in  the  traces  of  Sir  Samuel 
Ferguson  and  Aubrey  De  Vere.  George  Sigerson  and 
Douglas  Hyde  have  translated  old  Irish  poetry  into 
English  with  an  admirable  wealth  and  suppleness  of 
rhythm.  Ethna  Carbery  and  P.  J.  M'Call  sing  of  the 
hopes  and  sorrows  of  Erin  ;  Jane  Barlow,  A.  P.  Graves, 
Nora  Hopper,  Katharine  Tynan  Hinkson  write  of  nature 
and  of  country  life  ;  and  all  these  various  poetical  currents 
meet  finally  in  the  person  of  a  master,  an  incomparable 
artist,  W.  B.  Yeats.7 

It  cannot  be  said,  indeed,  that  these  writers  of  the 
Anglo-Irish  literary  renaissance — with  certain  exceptions, 
notably  Sigerson  and  Hyde — conform  invariably  to  the 
spirit  and  form  of  Celtic  literature,  or  represent  the 
intimate  genius  of  Ireland.  Several  of  them  evidently 
write  for  the  English  public.  Ireland  is  for  them  a  subject 
for  study  rather  than  an  element  of  their  personality. 
Some  of  them  like  Lionel  Johnson,  and  Geoige  W. 
Russell  (A.E.)  push  the  idealism   of   the  Celtic  mind  to 

7  It  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  work  to  give  even  a  sketch 
of  the  new  Anglo-Irish  literary  movement.  We  can  only  mention  a 
few  names  of  living  as  well  as  dead  writers.  See  for  this  pleiad  of  poets 
The  Treasury  of  Irish  Poetry  by  Stopford  Brooke  and  Rolleston  (London, 
1900)  ;  and  the  Collection  of  New  Songs,  a  lyric  Selection  by  "  A.  E." 
(Dublin,  1903).  See  also  on  Yeats,  two  articles  published  by  M.  Potez 
in  the  Revue  de  Paris  on  the  1st  and  15th  August  (1904).  Among  prose 
writers  we  may  mention  the  names  of  Julia  Crotty,  Edward  Martyn, 
Seumas  MacManus,  Shan  Bullock,  etc. 


424  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

the  mystical  borders  of  symbolism  and  Neo-Platonism. 
It  cannot  be  denied,  however,  that  the  literary  wealth 
of  ancient  Ireland  has  been  used  to  good  purpose  in 
Ireland's  intellectual  renaissance.  Irish  minds  have  been 
set  at  work,  and  given  a  field  for  their  activities.  It  is 
a  sign  of  the  times  that  Dublin  has  become  again  an 
intellectual  centre,  strong  enough  to  draw  Mr.  George 
Moore  to  it  for  a  time  from  London,  which  he  found  too 
rich  and  too  large,  and  from  the  London  public,  whose 
taste  he  found  too  bourgeois.  With  his  help,  Mr.  Yeats 
and  Lady  Gregory  founded  in  Dublin,  about  twelve  years 
ago,  an  Irish  Literary  Theatre. 

It  was  no  easy  thing  to  organise  a  theatre  that  should 

be  at  once  national  and  literary  in  Dublin,  where  for  a 

long  time  the  public  was  accustomed  to  see  only  those 

plays  which  had  had  a  London  success.     It  is  true  that, 

to  begin  with,  the  efforts  were  modest.     A  series  of  plays 

on  Irish  subjects  and  of  a  national  spirit  were  given  each 

year  in  a  local  hall.      From  the  beginning  subscriptions 

came  in  quickly,  and  on  the  list  of  its  patrons  were  to  be 

found   representatives   of   the  most   different   classes   of 

society.    Side  by  side  with  the  name  of  the  great  agitator, 

William  O'Brien,  was  to  be  found  that  of  the  Chief  Justice 

of  Ireland,  Lord  O'Brien  ;   the  Ex-Fenian,  John  O'Leary, 

stood  side  by  side  in  the  list  with  a  former  Ambassador 

of  His  Brittanic  Majesty  in  Paris,  Lord  Dufferin.    Finally, 

in  May,  1899,  the  first  performance  was  given  with   Mr. 

Yeats'  Countess  Cathleen,  a  play  full  of  verve  and  power. 

Unfortunately  it  was  not  sufficiently  Irish  in   character, 

and  offence  was  taken  at  certain  over-realistic  pictures  of 

peasant  life.      On  the  other  hand,  real  successes  of  that 

year   and-  the   following   years   were   Edward   Martyn's 

Heather  Field  ;    George    Moore's    Bending  of  the  Bough, 

a  very  effective  political  satire  ;  a  symbolical    play    of 

Martyn's  called  Maeve  ;  and  a  fine  drama  written  round 

the  legend  of  Diarmuid  and  Grania  by  George  Moore  and 

W.  B.  Yeats.     In  1904,  thanks  to  the  generous  initiative 

of    an    Englishwoman,     Miss     Horniman,     the    newly- 


THE   GAELIC   MOVEMENT  425 

established  Irish  National  Theatre  Society  found  a  home 
in  the  Abbey  Theatre,  and  advanced  from  occasional 
to  regular,  if  not  to  continuous',  performances.  Here 
many  plays  were  successfully  produced,  amongst  others, 
an  historical  drama  by  Lady  Gregory,  Kincora  ;  a 
dramatic  poem  by  Yeats,  The  Shadowy  Waters  ;  a 
sombre  tragi-comedy  by  Synge,  The  Shadow  of  the  Glen  ; 
a  play  with  a  purpose  by  Padraic  Colum,  The  Land  ; 
not  to  mention  numerous  little  comedies,  farces  and 
moralities,  such  as  Yeats'  Hour-Glass,  or  that  moving 
national  allegory  by  the  same  author,  Kathleen-ni- 
Houlihan.% 

The  unfortunate  thing  was  that  by  these  plays,  written 
in  English,  the  Irish  National  Theatre  did  not  clearly 
prove  its  right  to  the  first  of  its  names.  The  plays,  the 
poetry,  and  the  novels,  of  the  Anglo-Irish  group  of  writers 
were  not  essentially  Irish  or  Gaelic.  Foreign  influences, 
notably  Ibsen  and  Maeterlinck,  and  even  our  French 
decadents  were  preponderant.  Even  to-day  one  cannot 
help  finding  something  artificial  in  this  literature  that  is 
so  young  in  its  romanticism,  but  so  advanced  in  its 
subtle  art  and  studied  symbolism.  The  English  form  is 
superimposed  upon  a  thought  that  is  not  English,  but  is 
a  treasury  of  that  modernised  "  Celticism  "  the  charm  and 
penetration  of  which  were  revealed  to  English  readers  by 
Matthew  Arnold  half  a  century  ago.  It  is  an  orchestra 
of  new  instruments  seeking  to  adjust  itself  to  a  very 
ancient  music,  the  key  and  notation  of  which  are  lost,  a 
music  of  which  these  modern  players  can  give  but  their 
personal  interpretation.  We  may  go  further  and  say 
that  an  Irish  literature,  properly  speaking,  is  not  possible 
in  the  English  language,  except  in  the  case  of  those 
popular  ballads  and  political  poetry  in  which  Young 
Ireland  excelled.     Is  not  an  Anglo-Irish  literature  fated 

8  The  Irish  National  Theatre  Company,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Messrs.  Fay,  actors  themselves,  have  already  given  many  performances 
in  London.  See  in  the  Débats  of  the  19th  April,  1905,  the  eminent 
critic,  Augustin  Filons'  appreciation  of  one  of  their  performances.  Cf. 
Mr.  Walkley's,  of  the  London  Times,  criticism  in  the  Temps  of  the 
25th  July,   1904.     See  also  Mr.  Yeats'  annual  publication  Samhain. 


426  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

from  its  birth  to  be  but  a  transitory  and  diverted  stream 
of  the  great  river  of  Anglo-Saxon  literature  ?  It  is  certain 
that  the  new  school,  great  and  well-earned  as  has  been 
its  success,  is  even  in  Ireland  limited  in  its  appeal,  and 
passes  over  the  heads  of  the  masses,  who  fail  to  compre- 
hend it.  9 

Proof  of  this  was  given  on  a  certain  evening  in  October, 
1901,  when  the  Irish  Theatre  gave  its  first  performance  in 
the  Irish  tongue.  This  was  an  Irish  comedy  by  Douglas 
Hyde,  Casadh  an  tSugain  (The  Twisting  of  the  Rope),10 
a  slight  comedy  of  manners  dealing  with  Irish  country 
life  in  the  past,  but  the  occasion  was  the  first  in  which 
an  Irish  play  was  played  in  Irish  in  an  Irish  theatre.  It 
was  a  night  of  unprecedented  enthusiasm  !  During  the 
intervals  the  gallery  struck  up  old  Irish  songs,  while  the 
parterre  answered  with  applause.  It  seemed  to  everyone 
present  as  though  a  new  day  had  come  after  a  long  night, 
as  though  a  visible  and  material  sign  of  the  revival  of 
Irish  literature  had  been  manifested. 

Irish  literature,  as  is  known,  had  its  bright  period  even 
as  early  as  the  time  of  Geoffrey  Keating,  poet,  historian, 
and  founder  of  modern  Irish  (1570-1640).11  It  was  in  his 
day  also  that  the  Annals  of  the  Four  Masters  were 
compiled.12     Later,  the  poets  of  the  eighteenth  century, 

9  The  current  reproach  against  the  new  Anglo-Irish  school  is  that 
it  gives  a  picture  of  the  Irish  peasant  which,  while  different  from  the 
stage  Irishman  of  the  past,  is  neither  less  false  nor  more  agreeable. 
The  outbreak  provoked  by  Mr.  Yeats'  Countess  Cathleen  was  lately- 
renewed  in  connection  with  Mr.  J.  M.  Synge's  The  Playboy  of  the 
Western  World — a  comedy  dealing  with  Western  peasant  life — and  a 
heated  controversy  ensued  in  the  newspapers. 

10  See  translation  in  Samhain,  1901. 

11  Geoffrey  Keating,  a  priest,  suffered  during  his  life  from  English 
persecutions.  He  was  the  first  to  write  the  then  spoken  language 
(Modern  Irish,  which  followed  Middle  Irish,  as  Middle  Irish  had  in  the 
nth  and  12th  centuries  followed  Old  Irish),  as  literature.  The  Three 
Shafts  of  Death,  by  Keating,  was  edited  in  1890  by  Professor  Atkinson. 
The  same  has  been  done  for  his  poetry  by  Father  MacErlean  at  the 
instance  of  the  Gaelic  League,  in  1900.  His  History  of  Ireland  was 
translated  into  English  about  1723  by  D.  O'Connor,  and  is  about  to 
be  published  again  under  the  auspices  of  the  Irish  Texts  Society  of 
London.      Keating  had,  as  a  contemporary  historian,  MacFirbis. 

12  The  Annals  of  the  Tour  Masters  (1636),  a  collection  of  historical 
MSS.,  compilations,  etc.,  are  the  work  of  a  Franciscan,  Michael  O'Clery, 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  427 

those  Tyrtaeans,  O'Rahilly,  MacDonnell,  O'Sullivan,^  sang 
in  popular  verse  of  the  troubles  of  Ireland.  They  continued 
the  tradition  of  the  old  classical  bards,  without  possessing, 
however,  their  scholarly  and  complicated  prosody.  By 
the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  this  creative  activity 
had  little  by  little  died  out,  the  Penal  Laws  helping  to 
crush  it  ;  and  in  the  nineteenth  century  we  find  in  Ireland 
but  peasant  poets,  who  give  free  play  to  their  rustic 
inspiration.^  Would  the  revival  of  the  Gaelic  tongue 
bring  in  its  train  a  revival  of  Gaelic  literature  ?  The 
question  may  still  be  asked.  The  most  ardent  apostles 
of  the  Gaelic  movement  were  at  first  content  to  publish 
the  yet  unprinted  works  of  Keating  and  his  successors,1 5 
or  (as  has  been  done  of  late  in  Provence),  to  edit  in  a 
literary  form  those  popular  legends  which  for  centuries 
had  been  orally  transmitted  from  father  to  son  in  peasant 
families.      These  redactions  soon  ceased  to  satisfy  ;    the 


helped  by  three  other  archaeologists.  They  are  the  only  Irish  annals 
which,  written  entirely  in  Irish,  contain  no  Latin.  They  were  edited 
by  O'Donovan,  1848  to  1851. 

l3  The  works  of  these  three  poets  have  been  recently  edited  by  Father 
Dinneen  for  the  Irish  Texts  Society  and  the  Gaelic  League.  The 
oldest  of  them,  O'Rahilly,  chiefly  wrote  lamentations  and  elegies  on 
the  ruin  of  Ireland.  He  is  the  most  interesting  from  the  literary  point 
of  view.  In  MacDonnell,  1691  to  1754,  the  Jacobite  poet  par  excellence, 
we  find  chiefly  political  satires,  and  it  is  strange  to  find  one  against 
Philip,  Regent  of  France.  O'Sullivan,  the  youngest,  who  led  a  very 
disordered  life,  bore  witness  to  the  relaxation  of  the  Penal  Laws  and 
prophesied  a  happier  era  for  Ireland.  These  three  names  are  the  best 
known,  but  Ireland  then  possessed  a  great  number  of  popular  bards 
who  went  from  village  to  village  and  were  maintained  by  the  peasants, 
whose  hearts  they  cheered.  The  last  schools  of  the  bards,  the 
depositories  of  that  old  Irish  metre,  which  was  so  complex,  artificial, 
and  meshed  in  rules,  had  disappeared  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  with  the  political  organisation  of  the  clans,  and  poetry,  escaping 
from  the  traditional  forms,  became  freer  and  more  popular.  (For  the 
bardic  schools,  see  Dr.  Hyde's  Literary  History  of  Ireland,  p.  239,  et  seq., 
144,  et.  seq.  For  the  poets  at  the  end  of  the  18th  century  see  lb.,  p. 
591  et  seq.). 

H  Such  was  Raftery,  the  blind  poet  of  Mayo,  whose  works  have 
recently  been  edited  by  Douglas  Hyde. 

15  See  the  numerous  publications  of  the  Irish  Texts  Society  of  London 
and  the  Gaelic  League. 

Ubhla  de'n  Chraoib  is  the  title  of  a  collection  of  Irish  poetry  by 
Hyde.  Lady  Gregory  has  translated  some  of  them  in  Poets  and 
Dreamers,  Dublin  (1903).  Compare  the  article  by  George  Moore  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century  of  February,  1901. 


428  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

need  to  create  anew  was  quickly  felt,  the  need  to  express 
in  Gaelic  words  and  images  the  rejuvenated  forms  of  the 
national  spirit.  Already  Ireland  has  discovered  her  Mistral 
in  Douglas  Hyde,  An  Craoibinn  Aoibhinn,  who  is  a  poet 
as  well  as  a  prophet,  and  writes  with  simple  pathos  on 
nature,  solitude  and  the  life  of  the  fields.  His  work,  it  is 
said,  may  be  compared,  for  its  pure  idealism,  to  the  best 
lyric  poetry  that  has  been  produced  in  England  during 
the  last  ten  years.  After  his  first  dramatic  success,  Dr. 
Hyde  gained  others  with  a  Nativity  play,  Drama  Breithe 
Chriosta  ;  a  short  mystery,  Naomh  Ar  Iarraidh;  and  a 
little  comedy,  An  Posadh,  in  which  the  adventures  of 
the  poet  Raftery,  are  described.16  Round  him  a  group 
of  Irish  writers,  poets,  story-tellers,  dramatists,  have 
gradually  grown  up  :  O'Neill  Russell,  P.  T.  MacGinley, 
John  MacNeill,  J.  J.  Doyle,  Agnes  O'Farrelly,  Eamonn 
O'Neill,  Father  Dineen,  the  author  of  an  historical  novel, 
Cor  mac  0  Conaill  ;  Father  O'Leary,  the  author  of  the 
novel,  Seadhna,  and  that  very  successful  little  comedy, 
Tadhg  Saor  ;  P.  J.  O'Shea,  who,  with  his  Aodh  0  Neill 
entered  the  field  of  historical  drama.  There 
are  to-day  in  Ireland  a  great  number  of  Irish  writers  to 
whom  the  thought  of  writing  a  line  in  English  would 
never  have  occurred.  Irish  plays  are  performed  all  over 
the  country.  In  Dublin  there  is  not  enough  Irish  type 
to  satisfy  the  demands  of  a  public  which  is  hungry  for 
Irish  literature.  All  this  literature  is,  it  must  be  noticed 
popular  literature.  So  it  must  be  with  the  first  productions 
of  a  new  art.  Its  strength  and  the  conditions  of  its 
success  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  is  of  the  people  themselves. 
Ireland  has  thus  at  last  come  to  understand  what  sort 
of  a  fool's  paradise  she  had  been  living  in  when  she  had 
hoped  to  attain  national  culture  on  the  basis  of  a  foreign 
language.  She  now  knows  that  Anglo-Irish  literature, 
however  perfect  it  might  be,  could  be  but  an  expedient 
by  the  way,  a  means  whereby  the  creation  of  an  art  that 

16  Many  of  these  little  plays  have  been  translated  in    the   annual 
review,  Samhain. 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  429 

should  be,  properly  speaking,  Irish,  might  become  possible. 
For  a  people's  genius  can  expand  freely  only  in  the  mother- 
tongue,  and  the  Irish  language  alone  is  capable  of 
rendering  with  fidelity,  the  shades,  the  ideals,  and  the 
secrets  of  Ireland's  soul,  of  that  soul  in  whose  image  it 
has  been  created,  and  in  the  image  of  which  it  is  about 
to  create  in  return  a  new  literature. 

What  will  be  the  future  outcome  of  this  Gaelic  literary 
renaissance  ?  We  must  be  careful  not  to  prophesy.  We 
must  be  careful  not  to  draw  too  rapid  conclusions  from 
the  natural  comparisons  suggested  between  the  Gaelic 
movement  and  similar  movements,  Czech  or  Polish, 
Provençal  or  Flemish. 

It  is  certain  that  positive  obstacles  exist  in  the  way  of 
a  renaissance  of  Gaelic  literature.  We  are  not  now 
thinking  solely  of  the  difficulty  presented  by  the  language 
itself ,  which,  from  the  philological  point  of  view,  is  so 
expressive,  so  profound,  so  admirable,  with  its  regular 
syntax,  its  exceedingly  rich  vocabulary,1?  and  the  extra- 
ordinary facility  which  it  offers  for  the  formation  of  new 
words.18  Neither  are  we  thinking  of  the  difficulty 
presented  by  its  very  logical  orthography,  which  is  so 
little  phonetic  that  one  might  imagine  Ireland,  from 
century  to  century,  to  have  taken  a  scholar's  pleasure  in 
seeing  it  grow  bristly  with  complications^      The  true 

l~  The  modern  Irish  vocabulary  possesses  nearly  80,000  words 
(Hebrew  has  but  4,000).  The  Irish  also  boast  that  their  language 
possesses  a  marvellous  prosody  which  was  created  by  a  spontaneous 
evolution  and  is  not  at  all  imitative,  and  which  constitutes  to-day  an 
incomparable  literary  treasure  (rhyme,  as  is  known,  is  of  Irish  invention). 

*8  The  necessity  of  expressing  in  Irish  modern  inventions  such  as  the 
railway  or  the  telephone  is  indeed  an  existing  difficulty.  The  Irish 
should  do  what  the  Germans  have  been  doing  for  fifty  years,  to  exclude 
the  importation  of  foreign  words  (thus  for  instance  they  call  a  telephone, 
Femsprecher,  a  ticket  Fahrschein,  etc.).  A  short  time  ago  a  series  of 
lectures  on  Chemistry  was  delivered  in  Irish.  Douglas  Hyde,  Story 
of  Early  Gaelic  Literature,  1903,  p.  xx. 

l9  In  spite  of  the  archaic  orthography  of  the  English  language,  it 
appears  almost  phonetic  in  comparison  with  Irish  orthography.  The 
pronunciation  and  the  phonetics  of  Irish  have  lately  been  the  object 
of  very  careful  and  useful  study,  for  instance,  Dottin's  Etudes  sur  la 
prononciation  actuelle  d'un  dialecte  irlandais,  Revue  Celtique,  1893. 
Hayden,  Irish  Pronunciation.  Dublin,   1895,  etc. 


430  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

difficulty  lies  elsewhere.  A  literary  and  classical  language 
must  be  created  out  of  the  various  dialects  actually  in  use, 
each  of  which  (and  there  are  three  principal  dialects), 
claims  pre-eminence.  It  must  be  said  that  there  is  little 
difference  between  these  dialects  and  that  each  of  them 
is  understood  outside  its  locality.  Their  existence  is  due 
to  the  prolonged  interval  during  which  Gaelic  literature 
ceased  to  be  printed,  and  there  is  no  sensible  deviation 
in  any  of  them  from  the  standard  fixed  by  Keating. 
Will  that  standard  of  the  seventeenth  century  be  re-adopted 
to-day  ?  Or,  on  the  other  hand  will  one  of  the  existing 
dialects  be  accepted  as  the  standard  ?  The  literary 
language  will  probably  be  formed  by  a  natural  process, 
according  as  there  is  an  increase  in  communication,  spoken 
or  written,  between  the  various  provinces  ;  and,  above 
all,  when  a  modern  Gaelic  literature  by  its  success  has 
made  its  own  laws,  then  a  Gaelic  Academy  will  intervene 
and  register  those  rules  and  customs  already  imposed  by 
use.  The  difficulty  is  not  of  the  sort  which  the  will  of 
a  whole  people  cannot  overcome.  Is  not  the  spirit 
stronger  than  the  letter  ?  And,  moreover,  has  not  the 
old  Celtic  world  something  to  say  to  modern  times  through 
the  voice  of  its  legitimate  heir  ?  Has  not  the  new  Ireland 
acquired  by  persecution,  as  she  has  received  through 
tradition,  the  right  and  the  duty  of  preaching  to  the 
modern  world  a  lesson  of  idealism,  of  combating  the  two 
scourges  of  intellectual  life  to-day,  materialism  and 
rationalism  ?  On  the  day  when  that  voice  makes  itself 
heard,  bringing  its  message  of  idealism,  tenderness,  and 
beauty,  it  will  sound  nowhere  more  sweetly  than  in  the 
heart  of  France,  and  France  will  then  remember  the  Celtic 
blood  which  moves  in  her  veins.20 

20  The  Gaelic  Revival  has  not  only  a  literary  side  but  also  a  musical 
one — proof  of  this  is  shown  by  the  success  of  the  Feis  Ceoil  Association 
and  its  annual  musical  festival  (Feis  Ceoil)  in  Dublin.  The  Irish  hope 
that  the  day  will  come  when  Ireland  will  produce  a  school  of  art  worthy 
of  the  illuminators  of  the  Book  of  Kells  (8th  century),  of  the  makers  o'f 
of  Brooch  of  Tara  (9th  century),  and  of  the  Bell  of  St.  Patrick  (12th 
century). 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  431 


V. — Social  Results. 

Time  alone  will  tell  if  the  movement  is  to  affirm  itself 
in  literature  as  it  has  affirmed  itself  in  the  national 
language  and  in  education.  And  should  it  be  so,  will  its 
work  be  over  ?  Will  its  influence  be  confined  to  the 
intellectual  domain  ?  Surely  not  !  After  all,  language 
and  literature  are  but  signs  of  a  psychological  revival 
based  upon  the  national  factor.  That  revival  must  also 
manifest  itself  in  other  directions.  It  first  manifested 
itself  in  things  spiritual,  but  it  will  react  most  certainly 
upon  things  temporal,  for  the  latter  are,  to  a  great 
extent,  functions  of  the  former,  the  economic  and  social 
condition  of  a  people  depending  largely  upon  their 
psychological  and  moral  condition.  This  is  very  clearly 
recognised  by  the  promoters  of  the  movement  when  they 
demonstrate  the  great  value,  not  only  moral,  but  economic 
and  social,  of  the  national  idea,  above  and  beyond  politics. 
What  we  need,  they  say,  is  not  so  much  new  laws  as  a 
reform  from  within  which  shall  thoroughly  regenerate  the 
character  of  the  individual  Irishman  who,  outside  of 
Ireland,  can  make  his  way  so  well  and  yet  who  in  the 
mother-country  seems  deprived  of  all  energy  and  all 
desire  for  progress,  and  looks  to  the  State  for  aid  in 
everything,  as  though  in  his  pessimism  he  despaired  in 
advance  of  ever  seeing  anything  succeed  in  Ireland.  Let 
us  restore  to  him  his  language  and  his  tradition,  let  us 
attach  him  again  to  the  national  idea,  to  the  idea  of 
national  duty.  Then  his  soul  will  be  reanimated  with 
a  proud  patriotism,  with  a  sense  of  dignity  ;  initiative 
will  be  stimulated  within  him,  and  he  will  have  confidence 
and  an  ambition  to  work  for  Ireland.  In  a  word,  the 
first  conditions  of  all  prosperity  will  come  into  existence. 
This  is  what  we  may  expect  of  the  Irish  revival  from  a 
material  and  practical  point  of  view. 

And  the  first  signs  of  this  are  now  being  seen  in  Ireland. 
The  first  symptoms  appear  in  social  fife,  in  the  customs 


432  POSSIBILITIES    OF   REGENERATION 

and  manners  of  the  middle  class  and  the  people,  where 
the  interesting  process  of  de-Anglicisation  has  begun. 
Shoneens  and  West  Britons  are  not  so  happy  as  of  yore. 
They  no  longer  feel  themselves  to  be  in  a  conquered  land. 
They  find  themselves,  on  the  contrary,  put  to  shame  by 
the  Irish-Irelanders,  and  taken  to  task  by  the  satirical 
newspapers.  A  press  campaign,  a  campaign  of  speech 
and  of  action,  has  been  organised  to  break  down  the 
tyranny  of  English  fashion  and  amusements,  to  free 
opinion  from  the  ways  and  conventions  of  English  life. 
This  campaign  is  favoured  by  the  success  which  has 
attended  the  Irish  entertainments,  organised  by  the 
League,  all  over  the  country,  such  as  the  Seilge,  the 
Sgoruidheachta,  and  the  Feiseanna,  whose  reforming 
influence  cannot  be  esteemed  too  highly.  Already,  cricket 
is  being  abandoned  for  the  Celtic  national  game,  hurling, 
a  game  which  was  formerly  played  in  France  under  the 
name  of  "La  Crosse."  Societies  for  Gaelic  games  are 
developing  (as  for  instance,  the  Gaelic  Athletic  Associa- 
tion). Colleges  and  convents  are  being  transformed  and 
their  life  made  more  national.  And  as  a  visible  sign  of 
the  progress  of  the  movement,  some  Irishmen  are  following 
the  example  of  the  son  of  a  former  Lord  Chancellor  of 
Ireland  and  have  taken  to  wearing,  on  certain  occasions, 
the  National  kilt5  or  else  the  ancient  dress  of  the  Celts 
and  Gaels — consisting  of  trews  fastened  to  the  legs  with 
thongs,  a  tunic  caught  in  with  a  leather  belt,  and  a 
brath  or  coloured  sash  thrown  across  the  shoulder. 

What,  from  the  practical  point  of  view,  is  of  more 
importance  is  the  industrial  revival  which  is  looked  for 
and  which  already  may  be  seen  as  an  outcome  of  the 
Gaelic  movement.1  Of  all  the  evils  from  which  the 
country  suffers  there  is  none  graver  than  this  absence  of 
industries,  and  the  result  is  that  from  lack  of  employment 
the  Irish  are  leaving  the  country  in  a  ceaseless  stream. 
The  chief  blame  must  be  laid  at  the  doors  of  the  capitalists 

1  Cf.  the  following  chapter.      The  annual  Oireachtas  comprises  an 
industrial  section 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  433 

and  the  consumers.  The  former  invest  their  money  outside 
Ireland  instead  of  making  work  with  it  at  home.  Had 
they  any  public  spirit  or  sense  of  Irish  interests  and 
national  honour,  such  as  the  Irish  revival  tends  to  give 
them,  they  would  interest  themselves  in  the  economic 
development  of  the  country,  and  help  Ireland  and  Irish 
labour  with  their  cosmopolitan  capital.  The  consumers, 
on  their  side,  purchase  by  preference  foreign,  that  is  to 
say,  English  produce.  The  domination  of  English  fashion, 
and  the  contempt  for  Irish  goods  cost  Ireland,  as  we 
have  already  said,  some  £20,000,000  sterling  year  in  and 
year  out.  But  now  the  Irish  revival  has  declared  war 
upon  imported  produce  to  the  great  advantage,  not  onlv 
of  the  consumer,  who  is  freed  from  the  yoke  of  an 
imitative  slavery  to  England,  but  of  the  producer  also, 
whose  business  improves,  and  of  the  workman,  who  has 
a  chance  of  so  much  more  work.  Preference  for  Irish 
goods  !  The  cry  flies  from  mouth  to  mouth,  and 
associations  for  the  industrial  development  of  Ireland  are 
being  formed  everywhere.  Historical  precedents  are 
recalled — the  young  patriots  of  a  Dublin  club,  it  is 
remembered,  swore  in  1703,  never  again  to  honour  as  a 
toast,  or  to  call  beautiful,  a  woman  who  wore  French 
lace  or  foreign  fanfreluches.  Dean  Swift's  saying  is  heard 
again  :  "  Burn  everything  that  comes  from  England 
except  her  coal."  There  is  a  desire  to  imitate  the  great 
forerunners  who,  at  the  time  of  the  American  war  in 
1779,  united  to  proscribe  English  goods,  and  in  one  year 
reduced  English  importations  from  £2,000,000  to  £595,000 
sterling. 

All  this  tends  to  develop  industry  and  therefore  to 
ameliorate  the  economic  condition  of  the  population  of 
the  towns.  The  Irish  revival  tends  also  to  improve  the 
condition  of  the  country  people,  and  always  by  means 
of  the  same  principle  : — that  the  important  point  is  to 
give  back  to  the  children  of  Erin,  belief  in  Erin,  confidence 
in  their  own  energy,  and  to  concentrate  upon  Irish  soil 
the  ambitions  which  to-day  are  turned  towards  Liverpool 

2  F 


434  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

or  Chicago.  It  is  the  country  districts  which  suffer  most 
from  the  emigration  scourge.  Those  who  remain  here 
are  the  feeble  and  the  dreamers,  those  who  emigrate  are 
the  strong  and  the  young.  The  nation  in  losing  these 
loses  the  best  part  of  its  life  blood.  Now  the  economic 
fact  of  emigration  is  not  solely  due  to  the  vices  of  the 
land  system,  not  even  to  the  need  of  industries  in  Ireland  ; 
it  is  due  also  to  the  contagion  of  Anglicisation,  to  the 
psychological  condition  which  it  is  not  easy  to  imagine 
when  one  has  not  been  there  and  seen  the  sadness,  the 
mortal  melancholy  of  the  life  of  the  peasants  as  it  has 
been  for  fifty  years  while  Anglicisation  has  reigned 
supreme.  Think  of  the  conditions  in  those  desolate  lands 
of  the  West  where  the  rainy  sky  covers  only  stone  and 
rock,  peat-bog  and  marsh  !  Think  of  the  mental  state 
of  that  peasantry  of  old  Celtic  blood  whose  quick  and 
delicate  spirit,  and  rich  imagination,  make  them,  perhaps, 
the  most  intellectual  of  their  class  in  Europe  !  An  Irish 
Review  gave  them,  a  short  time  ago,  the  fine  name  of 
peasant  thinkers  and  poets.2  The  landlord  is  exacting, 
famine  always  a  menace,  and,  all  the  year  long,  man  has 
before  his  eyes  only  unkindly  nature  and  the  agony  of 
silence  and  of  loneliness.  Formerly,  as  a  consolation,  the 
Irish  peasant  fell  back  on  the  alibi  of  his  inner  life, 
his  poetical  taste,  his  traditions  of  culture.  The  old  Irish 
manuscripts  read  aloud,  by  the  light  of  the  candle,  and 
the  old  stories  which  were  transmitted  orally  from  father 
to  son,  were  true  legacies  of  comfort.  There  are  still  to-day 
in  Ireland  peasants  who  can  neither  read  nor  write,  but 
who  can  recite  straight  off  a  hundred  verses  in  Gaelic. 3 
Such  and  such  an  illiterate  old  man  can  declaim  for  hours 
old  epic  songs,  and  while  he  speaks  he  is  shaken  with  a 

2  From  many  observations  that  have  been  made,  it  appears  that 
these  Western  peasants  have  a  vocabulary  varying  from  3,000  to 
6,000  words  ;  the  vocabulary  of  an  ordinary  English  peasant  is  not 
above  500  to  800  words.  Intermediate  Education  Commission, 
Evidence,  p.  482. 

3  Mr.  Stephen  Gwynn,  M.P.,  depicts  the  type  in  To-day  and  To- 
morrow in  Ireland,  p.  62,  et  seq.  Dr.  Hyde  has  heard  peasants  recite 
the  poems  of  Donogh  More  Ô'Daly,  Abbot  of  Boyle,  who  died  sixty 
years  before  the  birth  of  Chaucer.     Revival  of  Irish  Literature,  p.  130. 


THE    GAELIC    MOVEMENT  435 

religious  thrill  ;  another,  like  Colum  Wallis  (Colm  de 
Bhailis),  who  recently  died  in  the  Oughterard  Workhouse, 
had  spent  his  life  in  composing  Irish  poems  which  the 
Gaelic  League  has  piously  gathered  together  and  published. 
In  the  Irish  country-side,  once  upon  a  time,  everyone 
was  a  poet,  just  as  everyone  was  an  artist  in  the  Italian 
cities  of  the  Renaissance.  But  England  came,  and  for  a 
half  century  she  had  done  all  she  could  to  destroy  the 
Irish  language.  Above  all  things  practical,  and  not 
sentimental,  she  did  not  say  to  herself  that  man  does  not 
live  by  bread  alone  ;  she  did  not  see  that  by  taking  from 
the  Celtic  dreamer  his  mother-tongue,  she  was  taking 
from  him  all  that  that  language  meant  to  him  in  the 
shape  of  faith,  poetry  and  idealism,  all  that  made  the  joy 
and  the  strength  of  his  life,  and  that  thus  she  was  killing 
him,  both  morally  and  intellectually.  Inevitably,  the 
peasant's  thoughts  turned  towards  departure  from  Ireland. 
Emigration  became  a  matter  of  custom.  Sons  and 
daughters  knew  that,  at  a  given  moment,  their  common 
lot  would  be  to  go  and  live  another  life  under  other  skies. 
Many  have  gone,  and  life  grows  sadder  still  for  those  who 
remain.  The  Irish  country-side  is  dying.  What  can  the 
Irish  revival  do  now  in  face  of  this  moral  misery,  which 
is  far  deeper  and  more  desperate  than  any  physical 
misery  ?  If  one  could  but  give  back  to  the  Irish  peasant 
his  language  he  would  find  salvation,  for  that  would  be 
to  give  him  back  his  soul,  his  faith,  his  vision  of  the  other 
world,  his  power  of  rising  above  misery  to  an  ideal  world 
of  memory  and  tradition  and  hope  ;  it  would  be  to  give 
back  to  him  his  love  of  the  soil  of  his  fathers  and  courage 
in  the  struggle  for  daily  bread.  Life  would  no  longer  be 
so  sad  a  business  as  it  now  is  in  the  Irish  country-side. 
Thus  it  is  hopeful  to  see  the  efforts  that  for  some  years 
have  been  made  in  this  direction  by  the  Gaelic  League 
and  by  some  enlightened  men  who  are  trying  to  recon- 
stitute country  life  on  a  better  basis  and  to  restore  to  it 
some  of  its  charm  and  aforetime  gaiety.  The  pleasures 
of  village  life  of  the  old  times  are  returning  ;    there  are 


436  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

dances,  country  concerts,  travelling  musicians  with  harps 
and  pipes,  Sunday  gatherings,  local  Feiseanna,  evening 
ceilidhe.  Here  and  there  we  find  lecture  rooms  and 
amusement  halls  organised  for  the  use  of  the  peasants  ; 
and,  what  is  still  more  interesting,  carefully  selected 
lending  libraries.  This  last  is  an  idea  which  we  French 
might  well  copy  in  many  of  our  country  villages 


VI. 

When  we  have  considered,  as  we  have,  the  field  of 
action  of  what  is  called  the  Gaelic  movement,  it  becomes 
a  matter  of  conviction  that  this  is  no  merely  superficial 
and  artificial  agitation,  but  a  profound  movement  which 
may  hold  within  it  the  germs  of  national  re-birth,  a 
movement  that  is  destined  to  free  the  Irish  nation  from 
intellectual  dependence  upon  England,  and  give  it  back 
its  own  life,  moral  and  mental,  economic  and  social.  We 
find,  in  one  word,  the  promise  of  an  Ireland  worthy  of 
the  name,  an  Irish  Ireland.1 

A  consideration  of  it  must  suggest  and  recall  those 
other  movements  of  national  renaissance  of  which  so  many 
small  nationalities  of  Europe  have  given  demonstration 
during  the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Czech 
language  and  literature  were  all  but  extinguished  a  hundred 
years  ago,  when  one  evening  four  or  five  scholars,  the 
last  depositories  of  the  national  treasure,  met  together  in 
a  certain  house  in  Prague  to  consider  means  by  which 
they  might  bring  this  treasure  to  life  again.  A  writer 
has  said  that  if  the  roof  of  the  house  had  fallen  in  there 
would  have  been  an  end  of  their  nationality.2  They 
fought   and   they    triumphed.       To-day,    following    the 

1  In  a  more  precise  way,  the  work  done  by  the  Gaelic  League  in 
Ireland  may  be  compared  to  the  work  done  in  Norway  by  the  Norske 
Samlag  (founded  in  1868)  with  the  help  of  the  philologist,  Ivar  Aasen, 
and  to  that  actually  being  done  in  Brittany  by  the  Breton  Union. 

2  George  Moore,  A  Plea  for  the  Soul  of  the  Irish  Nation  (Nineteenth 
Century,  February,  1901). 


THE   GAELIC   MOVEMENT  437 

example  of  the  Czechs,  the  southern  Slavs  and  the  Poles 
are  fighting  for  the  recognition  of  their  civilisation.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  century  Wales,  after  Wesley's 
regeneration  work,  had  readopted  the  Welsh  tongue,  and 
had  created  a  new  Welsh  literature.  Soon  afterwards  the 
Magyar  language  was  saved  from  Pan-Germanism,  and  the 
Finnish  from  Swedish  influence.  The  Flemish,  with 
Hendrick  Conscience,  resumed  their  natural  organ  of 
expression  without  losing  French,  and  the  Norwegians,  in 
spite  of  the  Danes,  reconstituted  their  language,  as  the 
latter  had  a  century  before  revived  theirs,  which  was 
being  stifled  by  German. 

Everywhere  the  revival  of  the  language  has  thus 
preceded  or  accompanied  a  national  renaissance.  Late 
in  the  lists  Ireland,  in  her  turn,  comes  to  fight.  She  is 
struggling  to  preserve  with  her  national  language  her 
right  to  live,  her  right  to  have  a  soul.  She  is  fighting  for 
something  else  as  well,  and  this  is  the  preservation  in  the 
world  of  a  group  of  ideas,  and  traditions,  whose  responsible 
depository  she  is.  And  it  must  be  said  that  of  all  the 
small  nationalities  who,  confronting  the  gross  utilitarian- 
ism and  corrupt  materialism  of  the  modern  world,  seem 
created  to  represent  the  claims  of  beauty,  truth,  and 
civilisation,  there  is  not  one  that  is  more  worthy  of  being 
preserved  than  Celtic  Ireland,  very  old,  and  always  young. 
In  none  of  them  do  we  find  a  more  delicate,  or  more 
spiritual  genius,  a  genius  richer  in  imagination,  piety,  and 
idealism  :  the  preservation  and  development  of  it  in 
complete,  conscious  and  fruitful  expression  is,  more  than 
any  other,  essential  to  the  future  of  humanity. 

If  this  culture  should  perish  it  would  be  a  crime.  And 
if  one  takes  the  point  of  view  of  England's  own  self- 
interest  it  would  be  a  mistake.  England  has  need  of  a 
populous  Ireland,  a  rich  Ireland,  a  loyal  Ireland,  whose 
hostility  she  need  not  fear.  But  she  has,  above  all,  need 
of  an  Ireland  that  shall  be  truly  Irish  and  Celtic.  It  is 
not  a  paradox  to  say  that  Ireland  will  be  so  much  the 
less  anti-English  as  she  is  the  less  Anglicised,  as  she  is 


438        POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

more  Celtic  and  national.  Nor  is  this  all.  There  is  a 
Celtic  factor  in  the  composition  of  the  English  mind  which 
has  manifested  itself  clearly  in  the  case  of  some  of  her 
greatest  men,  and  greatest  poets.  It  is  to  England's 
interest  that  this  Celtic  influence  should  continue  to 
counterbalance  in  her  genius  the  German  and  Norman 
elements.  It  is  Matthew  Arnold  and  not  we  who  say 
this,  and  the  thesis  may  be  found  in  his  celebrated  work 
on  the  Study  of  Celtic  Literature.. 

When  the  Gaelic  movement  was  born  in  Ireland  the 
general  impression  was  that  this  movement  came  too  late 
into  a  world  too  old.  The  cause  seemed  lost  in  advance. 
Foreign  examples  proved  nothing,  so  it  was  said. 
Nowhere  else  had  the  national  language  fallen  so  low  as 
in  Ireland  ;  no  other  country  had  to  fight  alone  such  a 
battle  against  such  an  adversary.  If  Ireland  had  but  had 
behind  her  such  solid  strength  as  the  Slav  world  behind 
the  Czechs  and  the  Poles  she  might  stand  a  chance  of 
success  !  But  what  is  Pan-Celticism  compared  to  Pan- 
Slavism  ?3  To-day,  on  the  other  hand,  when  observers 
note  how  the  mind  of  the  nation  has  awakened  to 
enthusiasm  ;  when  the  ardour  with  which  the  Irish  people 
have  received  the  new  gospel,  and  the  intelligence  with 
which  they  have  understood  what  was  expected  of  them 
is  known  ;  when  after  fifteen  years  of  work,  obstacles 
have  been  surmounted  and  results  attained,  it  begins  to 
be  said  that  the  impossible  sometimes  comes  true,  and 
that  success  is  not  impossible.  No  doubt,  Ireland  as 
yet  is  but  at  the  dawn  of  day.  The  battle  has  only  begun, 
but  it  is  already  half  won  against  the  outside  enemy,  that 
is  to  say,  against  anti-Celtic  prejudice.     One  would  like 

3  The  Pan-Celtic  movement  is  an  interesting  one  whose  object  is  to 
bring  together  and  ally  the  five  groups  of  Celtic  populations,  the  Bretons 
of  France,  the  Irish,  the  Welsh,  the  Highlanders,  and  the  people  of 
the  Isle  of  Man.  The  movement  is  certainly  of  interest,  but  Ireland 
has  only  an  academic  and  sentimental  concern  in  it.  Ireland  knows 
well  that  she  is  unripe  for  the  long  thoughts  and  hopes  of  the  Pan- 
Celticists  and  that  she  would  waste  her  strength  if  she  went  too  far 
afield. 

(See  on  Pan-Celticism,  article  by  M.  de  Gofnc  in  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes,  ist  May,  1906). 


THE   GAELIC   MOVEMENT  439 

to  be  assured  of  its  success  against  the  enemies  within, 
that  is  to  say,  against  the  absorbing  and  harmful  influence 
of  politics,  against  raimeis  or  vain  rhetoric,  Ireland's 
darling  sin,  against  inertia,  her  worst  weakness.  We  may 
say,  however,  that  the  movement  has  started  well.  The 
most  sceptical  of  our  Irish  friends  who  five  years  ago 
smiled  at  Gaelic  hopes  are  now  almost  sure  that  Ireland 
in  the  next  generation  will  be  bi-lingual,  at  least  for  the 
greater  part.  For  the  present,  in  any  case,  no  one  will 
deny  the  positive  result  that  the  movement  has  produced 
in  the  social  domain.  From  one  end  of  the  country  to  the 
other  the  Gaelic  spirit  is  working  as  a  powerful  factor  of 
peace  and  of  union.  The  Gaelic  revival  has  restored  the 
national  idea  and  raised  it  above  and  beyond  party,  and 
religious  profession.  Under  the  Gaelic  banner  there  are 
neither  Unionists  nor  Nationalists,  everyone  is  Irish. 
Of  the  two  Irelands,  the  Gaelic  renaissance  is  making  one. 
This  movement  opens  a  new  phase  in  the  history  of 
Ireland.  Please  God  it  may  be  a  happier  one  than  those 
which  have  preceded  it  !  First  Ireland  tried  to  regain 
her  independence  by  force  of  arms.  The  insurrection  of 
1798  was  the  last  great  characteristic  act  of  this  period, 
of  which  the  rising  of  1848  and  the  Fenian  conspiracy 
were  reverberations.  Then,  with  O'Connell  and  Parnell, 
she  sought  to  regain  her  liberty  through  Parliamentary 
action  and  constitutional  agitation.  Without  giving  up 
the  Parliamentary  battle,  she  is  now  fighting  for 
psychological  freedom,  for  the  moral  reconstruction  of  her 
nationality.  She  is  persuaded  that  when  the  mind  of  the 
people  is  reformed,  when  national  sentiment,  with  all  that 
it  comprises  of  national  faith,  force  of  character  and 
ardour  in  action,  is  restored,  she  will  more  easily  find  the 
ways  of  liberty  and  of  prosperity. 


CHAPTER   III.— ECONOMIC     REFORM 

The  movement  in  favour  of  Economic  Reform  is  akin  to, 
yet  distinct  from,  that  movement  which  goes  under  the 
name  of  the  Gaelic  Revival.  The  latter  is  founded  on  the 
idea  of  nationality  ;  the  former  on  the  principle  of  self- 
help.  The  one  aims  at  universal  national  regeneration, 
the  other  at  material  progress  and  the  economic  salvation 
of  the  country.  This  salvation,  however,  is  to  be  sought 
through  methods  or  agencies  which  are  not  by  nature 
exclusively  economic  or  material.  Like  the  Gaelic 
movement,  the  economic  movement  tries  to  re-make  the 
character  of  the  individual,  and  to  revive  the  industrial 
vigour  of  Ireland  by  renewing  her  manhood,  and  raising 
her  to  the  level  of  the  necessities  imposed  by  modern 
life  and  world-wide  competition. 


I. — The  Evil  and  the  Remedy. 

What  is  the  cause  of  Ireland's  economic  decadence  ? 
As  I  have  already  said,  this  decadence  is  not  due  to  a 
lack  of  natural  resources.1       It  is  not  caused  by  the 

1  With  reference  to  this  movement  see  Report  of  the  Recess  Committee, 
Dublin,  1896.  (New  Edition,  1907).  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  Ireland  in 
the  New  Century,  London,  1904.  Ireland,  Industrial  and  Agricultural, 
Dublin,  1902  (published  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical 
Instruction).  Cp.  The  Annual  Reports,  the  Monthly  Journals,  and 
other  publications  of  the  same  Department,  besides  the  Annual  Reports 
and  the  various  publications  of  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation 
Society.  Cp.  Stephen  Gwynn,  M.P.,  To-day  and  To-morrow  in 
Ireland,  Dublin,  1903.  See  also  the  evidence  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett 
and  Mr.  T.  P.  Gill  before  the  University  Commission.  Appendix 
II.,  etc.,  and  III.,  231,  etc.  Cp.  L.  Paul-Dubois,  L'Exposition  de 
Cork  et  le  Nouveau  Mouvement  Economique  en  Irlande,  in  the  Economiste 
Français,  6th  December,  1902.  See  the  last  three  chapters  of  E. 
Béchaux's  book,  La  Question  Agraire  en  Irlande,  Paris.    1906. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  441 

absence  of  workers,  for  thousands  of  able-bodied  men 
emigrate  to  America.  Neither  is  it  due  to  want  of  capital, 
for  Ireland  has  plenty  of  capital  lying  idle  in  the  Savings 
Bank  and  in  other  Banks.2  The  fact  of  the  matter  is 
that  Ireland  lacks  confidence  in  herself  and  in  her  future, 
and  that  she  needs  initiative,  business  capacity  and 
perseverance.  Her  people  still  believe  in  the  old  adage 
"  Nothing  Irish  can  succeed."  Besides  a  good  general 
education,  all  classes  of  Irishmen  need  technical  instruction 
and  a  business  training.  Their  ignorance  in  agricultural 
and  technical  matters  is  extreme,  and  their  methods 
usually  very  antiquated  ;  it  is  estimated  that  the  produce 
of  the  land  could  be  at  least  doubled. 3  The  peasant  and 
the  workman  need  regular  and  intelligent  employment, 
and  discipline,  honesty  and  accuracy  in  business  matters. 
To  mention  one  fact  amongst  thousands  :  the  majority 
of  strikes  in  Ireland  are  decided  by  appeal  to  the  English 
Trades  Unions,  which  naturally  regard  Irish  industries 
as  rivals  to  be  destroyed. 

If  one  omits  certain  necessary  causes,  such  as  political 
and  agrarian  agitation,  and  emigration  to  America,  the 
true  reason  for  this  state  of  affairs  is  that  social  and 
commercial  oppression  in  the  past  destroyed  not  only 
every  trade  and  industry,  but  also  the  industrial  and 
commercial  instinct.  "  Even  the  traditions  of  commercial 
enterprise  have  perished  through  desuetude,"  said  Lord 
Duffenn.4  "  Not  only  had  the  tree  been  stripped,  but 
the  roots  had  been  destroyed,"  said  Sir  Horace  Plunkett.5 

Prolonged  oppression,  the  evils  of  landlordism,  and 
fiscal  exploitation,  did  not  permit  the  re-growth  of  these 
roots  throughout  the  nineteenth  century.  Free  Trade, 
too,  and  the  development  of  transport  facilities,  have 
helped  to  transform  Ireland  from  a  prosperous  nation 
into  a  country  of  beggars,  or  worse  still,  into  a    country 

2  Ireland  has  more  than  £27,000,000  invested  in  English  Funds. 

3  Report  of  the  Recess  Committee,  Dublin.   1896,  p.   II. 

4  Irish  Emigration  and  the  Tenure  of  Irish  Land,  London,  1867,  p.  129. 

5  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  19. 


442  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

offering  a  wide  field  for  exploitation  by  Anglo-American 
syndicates. 

This  being  so,  what  can  be  done  to  give  Ireland  her 
true  position  in  the  commercial  world  ?  Should  the  State 
be  applied  to  and  asked  to  restore  those  industries  and 
enterprises  of  which  it  was  the  destroyer  ?  Unfortunately 
though  the  omnipotence  of  the  State  can  destroy  such 
things,  it  cannot  reconstruct  them.  Is  there  anything 
to  be  hoped  for  from  a  system  of  bounties  or  of 
protective  tariffs  ?  Such  artificial  stimulants  are  always 
costly  and  rarely  efficacious  ;  moreover,  England  would 
not  countenance  them.  Would  it  be  sufficient,  supposing 
it  possible,  to  persuade  the  Irish  consumer  to  use  only 
articles  of  Irish  manufacture  ?  This  preference  for  national 
industries,  if  given  on  any  other  condition  but  that  of 
equality  in  price  and  quality,  is  praiseworthy,  no  doubt, 
but  it  is  artificial  and  inefficient.  In  short,  none  of 
these  remedies  can  have  the  effect  desired.  Since  Irish 
decadence  arises  from  the  destiuction  of  the  commercial 
spirit,  it  is  necessary  to  revive  this  spirit,  and  to  educate 
the  individual  anew  in  commercial  affairs.  Above  all 
the  individual  must  be  roused  from  his  present  state  of 
inner  depression  ;  he  must  be  taught  the  conditions  of 
labour  ;  he  must  be  re-endowed  with  practical  instincts 
and  with  faith  in  his  own  capacity  and  in  the  possibility 
of  success.  Such  are  the  necessary  preliminaries  to  all 
economic  reform.  This  backward  being  must  be  trans- 
formed into  an  "  economic  man,"  and  taught  to  be  an 
active,  intelligent  and  temperate  worker,  like  the  Danish 
peasant  or  the  Dutch  artisan.  Helpless  and  ignorant 
individualist  that  he  is,  he  must  be  restored  to  efficiency, 
on  the  one  hand  by  self-help  and  co-operation,  on  the 
other  by  a  good  business  or  technical  education.  These 
are,  broadly  speaking,  the  lines  on  which  the  work  should 
be  carried  out.  The  problem  is  before  all  else  a  problem 
of  education  ;  the  Irishman  must  receive  that  economic 
training  which  is  his  right,  and  which  alone  will  fit  him 
to  take  his  place  in  the  struggle  for  existence.     It  is  not 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  443 

so  much  a  question  of  the  direct  and  deliberate  establish- 
ment of  new  industries  ;  the  aim  should  rather  be  to 
create  a  condition  of  things  and  a  condition  of  mind 
which  will  give  full  scope  to  individual  initiative. 


II. — Self  help  and  Co-operation.1 

Fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago  these  ideas  attracted  a 
small  number  of  far-seeing  Irishmen,  "  practical  idealists," 
as  they  were  afterwards  well  called.  Amongst  them 
should  be  mentioned  Mr.  R.  Anderson,  Father  Finlay, 
Lord  Monteagle,  and  the  Hon.  (now  Sir)  Horace  Plunkett, 
a  descendant  of  one  of  those  old  Norman  families  who 
have  had  their  home  in  Ireland  since  the  twelfth  century. 
Ten  years  of  ranching  in  the  United  States  had  convinced 
Horace  Plunkett  of  a  truth  too  often  forgotten  by 
Irishmen,  namely,  that  politics  is  by  no  means  the  most 
edifying  nor  the  most  useful  of  all  the  spheres  of  human 
activity.  On  his  return  in  1888,  he  devoted  himself  to 
the  social  and  economic  regeneration  of  Ireland,  more 
especially  of  rural  Ireland,  because  agriculture  is  the 
most  important  Irish  industry.  His  fellow-workers  were 
men  of  various  political  views.  His  aim  was  to  revive 
agriculture  and  regenerate  the  agriculturist  by  a  pro- 
gramme of  Self  Help.  But  this  aim  could  not  be  attained 
immediately  by  the  mere  diffusion  of  these  opinions. 
The  peasants  must  be  brought  and  banded  together  if 
the  lesson  was  to  go  home  ;  they  had  to  be  educated 
through  the  intermediary  of  social  groups,  the  co- 
operative associai  ions.  Horace  Plunkett  and  his  fellow- 
workers  decided  to  start  a  central  society,  with  a  view 
to  organising  and  teaching  the  people.  This  body  became 
known  as  the   Irish  Agricultural  Organisation    Society, 

1  Amongst  the  promoters  of  economic  reform  were  to  be  found 
representatives  of  all  shades  of  political  opinion,  from  ultra-Nationalists 
who  admitted  that  economic  reform  was  necessary,  to  LTnionists  like 
Sir  H.  Plunkett,  who  hoped  to  reconcile  Ireland  to  the  Union  and  to 
Imperialism  by  effecting  the  material  regeneration  of  the  country. 


444  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

and  little  by  little  it  has  succeeded,  though  with  some 
difficulty,  in  propagating  the  theory  and  practice  of  rural 
co-operation. 

It  is  a  curious  thing  that  the  promoters  of  this 
movement  knew  nothing  at  this  time  of  the  work 
accomplished  on  the  Continent  by  rural  co-operation. 
Force  of  circumstances  had  led  them  to  the  idea  of  co- 
operation, and  in  this  way  they  learned  to  see,  perhaps 
more  clearly  than  the  economists  on  the  Continent,  that 
the  co-operative  movement  has  an  educational  as  well 
as  a  practical  utility.  In  spreading  their  views  throughout 
the  country  districts  they  naturally  insisted  most  strongly 
on  the  practical  value  of  these  views.  "  Co-operation," 
said  they  to  the  peasants,  "  will  help  you  to  reduce  your 
general  expenses,  to  dispense  with  middlemen,  to  be  your 
own  bankers,  and  your  own  insurers.  Isolated,  you  are 
powerless  against  competition  ;  banded  together,  you  will 
be,  if  not  all-powerful,  at  least  better  armed  for  the 
struggle." 

But  the  promoters  themselves  put  most  confidence  in 
the  educational  value  of  co-operation.  Co-operation,  as 
they  knew,  raises  the  level  of  work  by  imposing  a  certain 
standard  of  workmanship  and  labour  ;  it  develops  in  the 
individual,  by  a  process  of  mutual  education,  a  practical 
comprehension  of  economic  necessities,  and  a  respect  for 
competency  ;  gives  him  training  and  discipline,  teaches 
him  the  value  of  labour,  and  inculcates  a  feeling  of 
responsibility.  Co-operation,  if  well  understood,  is  indeed 
the  most  powerful  factor  in  an  economic  education. 
"  All  other  education,"  writes  a  German  economist, 
"  applies  to  the  individual  only,  but  co-operation  changes 
the  milieu.  And,  for  the  most  of  human  beings,  milieu 
far  more  than  race  or  tradition,  decides  success  or  failure 
in  life."-' 

The  inauguration  of  the  movement  was  full  of 
difficulties.     Horace  Plunkett,  it  is  said,  had  to  speak  at 

2  M.  T.  Bonn,  4th  Report  of  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society, 
p.   103 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  445 

more  than  fifty  meetings  before  he  was  able  to  form  a 
single  rural  association.  Everywhere  he  was  met  by  a 
deep-seated  ignorance  of  the  co-operative  principle,  and 
b}'  the  peasant's  apathy  and  hatred  of  innovations. 
Political  strife,  on  the  other  hand,  impeded  all  progress  ; 
Nationalist  butter  was  set  up  against  Unionist  butter, 
Protestant  against  Catholic  milk  ;  and  more  than  one 
agricultural  syndicate  came  to  grief  during  the  quarrel 
between  Parnellites  and  anti-Parnellites.  Finally  there 
was  the  enmity  of  the  retail  dealers,  and  of  the  English 
Co-operators, 3  who  had  profited  by  the  apathy  of  the 
Irish  peasant,  and  exploited  the  dairy  industry  of  Ireland 
to  their  own  profit. 

At  the  same  time,  the  audacious  innovators  were 
overwhelmed  with  objections.  It  was  said  that  their 
ideals  were  Utopian  ;  that  rural  co-operation,  having 
failed  in  England,  could  not  succeed  in  Ireland  ;  that  the 
Irish  were  capable  of  conspiring,  but  not  of  combining, 
and  that  they  would  only  exert  themselves  under  the 
impulse  of  political  and  social  passions.  Definitely 
non-political,  the  movement  was  unanimously  attacked 
by  every  political  party.  The  Tories  blamed  Horace 
Plunkett,  Unionist  and  Protestant  as  he  was,  for  trafficking 
with  the  rebels,  and  at  the  General  Election  of  1900  they 
turned  him  out  of  his  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  Nationalists  accused  him  of  trying  to  kill  Home  Rule 
by  kindness,  and  to  compromise  Irish  aspirations  ;  they 
were  suspicious  of  so  much  benevolence  and  liberalism  : 
Timeo  Danaos  et  dona  ferentes.  Finally,  intelligent 
people  said  :  "  Your  ideas  are  good,  but  nothing  can  be 
done  whilst  landlordism  continues  to  exist.  You  are 
putting  the  cart  before  the  horse.  You  cannot  make 
omelettes  without  eggs.  To  improve  agriculture  you 
must  first  give  the  peasant  some  land  to  cultivate  ;  at 
present  the  rent  paid  to  the  landlord  exhausts  the  value 

3  That  is,  of  the  English  Co-operative  Wholesale  Society.  On  the 
other  hand,  Sir  Horace  and  his  friends  were  most  kindly  assisted  by 
the  heads  of  the  English  Co-operative  Union.  (Ireland  in  the  New 
Century,  p.  184). 


446  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

of  the  land."  To  which  the  promoters  of  the  new  scheme 
answered  :  "  Why  delay  ?  The  danger  no  longer  arises 
from  landlordism,  but  from  the  ignorance,  the  inertia, 
and  the  isolation  of  the  peasant.  The  rent  represents 
only  a  small  part  of  the  cost  of  cultivation.  If  the 
grazing  lands  were  to-morrow,  by  a  miracle,  to  be  divided 
amongst  the  peasants,  these  latter  would  be  unable  to 
cultivate  them,  owing  to  a  want  of  technical  instruction 
and  of  capital.  If  '  rent  '  were  abolished  to-morrow, 
the  peasant,  isolated  as  he  is,  would  be  unable  to  struggle 
against  competition.  Further,  a  peasant  proprietary 
would  be  impossible  without  co-operation  amongst  the 
peasants.  The  very  existence  of  the  Irish  countryside 
is  menaced  ;  there  is  not  an  instant  to  lose  if  we  wish  to 
save  it  by  saving  the  Irish  peasant." 

An  intelligent  propaganda  on  the  part  of  Sir  Horace 
and  the  Irish  Agricultural  Organisation  Society,4  soon 
began  to  gain  support  for  the  new  ideas,  in  spite  of  all 
obstacles  and  objections.  The  Society  is  of  an  original 
and  novel  type,  and  has  for  its  aim  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  the  agricultural  population  of  Ireland  by 
instruction  in  the  principles  and  methods  of  co-operation. 
Ot  itself  it  has  created  nothing  ;  it  merely  organises, 
advises,  and  controls.  It  sends  out  organizers,  who 
undertake  campaigns  in  one  district  after  another,  and 
endeavour  to  establish  co-operative  associations  by 
explaining  their  aims,  advantages  and  methods  to  the 
peasants.  The  parent  Society  watches  over  its  offshoots, 
initiates  them  into  the  best  methods  ot  procedure, 
superintends  their  operations,  and  audits  their  accounts. 
Through  its  agents  and  instructors  it  trains  the  co- 
operators  in  good  business  habits,  and  teaches  how  to 

4  This  Society,  founded  in  1893,  and  having  its  headquarters  in 
Dublin  (Lincoln  place),  has,  in  ten  years,  spent  more  than  ^50,000  in 
organising  the  Co-operative  Movement  in  Ireland.  The  office  of 
President  has  been  filled  successively  by  Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  Lord 
Monteagle,  and  Col.  Everard.  Its  funds  are  drawn  from  subscriptions 
and  donations.  The  affiliated  societies  pay  an  annual  levy  ;  and  the 
Society  also  receives  financial  support  from  the  Department  of 
Agriculture.     Many  Co-operative  Societies  do  not  join  the  I.A.O.S. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  447 

keep  accounts  and  to  apply  co-operative  rules.  In  a 
word,  it  undertakes  their  economic  education.  In  1894, 
when  the  Society  commenced  its  labours,  there  were  33 
Co-operative  Associations  in  Ireland  ;  at  present  (1904) 
there  are  yj8  of  various  kinds,  with  85,000  members, 
representing  a  population  of  over  400,000  persons,  or 
about  one-seventh  of  the  total  population  of  Ireland. 

It  is  well  known  that  both  in  Germany  and  in  Italy 
co-operation  originated  with  the  formation  of  country 
banks.  In  Ireland  and  France,  on  the  contrary,  the  first 
associations  of  the  kind  were  either  agricultuial  societies 
or  co-operative  dairies.  At  the  present  day  this  last 
form  of  co-operation  is  the  most  usual  in  Ireland,  where 
there  are  328  dairies  worked  on  this  system.  Next  in 
number  come  the  country  banks,  of  which  there  are 
200,  with  11,194  members.  These  banks  are  mostly  of 
the  Raiffeisen  type.  There  are  besides  131  Agricultural 
Societies  (whose  business  it  is  to  attend  to  the  breeding 
of  cattle,  the  making  of  joint  purchases,  and  the  like)  ; 
54  co-operative  associations  of  rural  industries,  principally 
lace  ;  and  62  other  societies  for  the  sale  of  eggs  and  fowl, 
the  dressing  of  flax,  and  general  agricultures  Finally, 
there  are  three  Federations  of  Societies — the  Bee-keepers, 
the  Irish  Co-operative  Agency  Society,  engaged  in  the 
sale  of  butter  produced  by  the  Irish  co-operative  dairies, 
and  1he  Irish  Agricultural  Wholesale  Society,  which 
looks  after  the  wholesale  business  for  the  country 
associations,  and  finds  a  market  for  their  goods.  These 
last  two  societies  had  in  1904  a  turn-over  of  £169,273 
and  £58,843  respectively. 

All  this,  doubtless,  is  but  a  beginning.  Many  classes 
of  the  rural  population  have  still  to  be  won  over  to  co- 
operation, and  many  varieties  of  co-operation  have  yet 
to  be  developed,  including  the  system  of  mutual  or   joint 

5  Some  efforts  have  been  made  to  form  Co-operative  Societies  for 
the  common  tenure  and  cultivation  of  land.  This  form  of  co-operation, 
of  which  there  are  some  successful  examples  in  England,  and  which, 
moreover,  prevents  division  of  land  into  small  portions,  has  only 
succeeded  in  Ireland  when  applied  to  grazing  farms. 


44§  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

insurance,  the  collective  usage  of  machinery,  co-operative 
bacon-curing  factories,  and  the  like.  The  Societies,  too, 
have  often  to  be  blamed  for  bad  management,  favouritism 
or  carelessness.  Sometimes  a  Committee  will  hold  its 
meetings  in  a  public-house  ;  when  the  auditor  of  the' 
I.A.O.S.  pays  a  surprise  visit  he  finds  that  the  accounts 
are  behindhand,  or  that,  perhaps,  none  have  been  kept. 
On  the  whole,  however,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  surprised 
at  the  progress  that  the  movement  has  made.  Over  the 
Irish  peasant,  who  is  at  the  same  time  adaptable  and  back- 
ward, it  has  certainly  exercised  an  extraordinary  influence. 
"  There  is  much  in  the  genius  and  tradition  of  the  Irish 
farmer,"  says  Sir  Horace  Plunket*,  "  which  fits  him  for 
combination.  The  old  clan  spirit  is  by  no  means  dead 
in  him.  Isolated,  the  Irish  farmer  is  conservative, 
sceptical  of  innovation,  a  believer  in  routine  and  tradition  ; 
in  union  with  his  fellows,  he  is  progressive,  open  to  ideas, 
and  wonderfully  keen  at  grasping  the  essential  features 
of  the  new  proposal  for  his  advancement."  6 

Once  Co-operation  is  learned  and  understood  in  Ireland, 
there  is  no  danger  of  its  deviating,  as  has  been  the  case 
in  England,  into  that  form  of  distributive  co-operation 
which  is  simply  capitalism  of  a  new  order.  The  movement 
continues  to  receive  support,  not  only  from  the  central 
organising  Society,  wlich  is  now  subsidised  for  this  purpose 
by  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  but  from  the  Depart- 
ment itself,  and  from  agricultural  committees  and  County 
Councils.  An  effort  is  being  made  to  develop  flax- 
growing  and  market  gardening,  to  improve  the  breeds 
of  cattle,  and  to  bring  methods  of  cultivation  and  farming 
to  perfection. 

The  yield  of  butter  per  gallon  of  milk  has  constantly 
increased  during  the  last  ten  years,  7  and  Irish  butter  is 

b  Extract  from  a  speech,  made  in  1902.  (Ireland,  Industrial  and 
Agricultural,  p.  231).  Moreover  it  is  amongst  a  people  of  a  very 
different  race  and  of  a  very  different  character — the  Germans — that 
Co-operation  has  hitherto  found  its  strongest  supporters. 

7  The  average  in  1904  was  6*59  oz.  per  gallon  of  milk.  This  figure  is 
higher  than  that  of  the  French  Co-operative  dairies. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  449 

now  able  to  hold  its  ground  in  the  English  market  against 
its  great  rival,  Danish  butter.  With  the  assistance  of 
the  Gaelic  League,  a  strenuous  effort  is  being  made  to 
lessen  the  melancholy  of  country  life  by  improving  the 
condition  of  the  cottages,  and  by  establishing  libraries, 
classes,  and  lectures.  The  most  hopeful  sign  of  success 
is  that  in  certain  districts,  notably  Tyrone,  Monaghan, 
and  Fermanagh,  emigration  appears  almost  to  have 
ceased.  "  If  this  continues,"  said  Father  Finlay,  with 
somewhat  exaggerated  optimism,  "  all  abnormal 
emigration  from  Ireland  will  have  disappeared  in  ten 
years." 

Morally,  too,  the  bracing  effect  of  the  movement  has 
begun  to  make  itself  felt.  Discipline,  if  properly  exercised, 
strengthens  instead  of  destroying  individual  energy  ; 
and  in  the  same  way  this  important  lesson  called  Co- 
operation, directed  and  controlled  as  it  is,  gives  men 
experience,  stimulates  individual  effort,  and  developes 
a  taste  for  work  by  increasing  the  produce  of  labour. 
There  is  no  better  education  than  this.  It  is  interesting 
to  notice  that  it  is  the  people  of  the  West,  apparently 
the  most  miserable  and  the  most  unprogressive,  who  are 
yet  the  most  attracted  by  the  new  theories.  The 
co-operative  credit  system,  the  most  difficult  of  all  forms 
of  co-operation,  is  the  form  that  succeeds  best  amongst 
them.  It  should  be  mentioned  that  nowhere  in  Ireland 
is  the  want  of  credit  felt  as  it  is  in  the  West,  amongst  those 
wretched  peasants  who  are  ignored  by  the  large  banks, 
and  to  whom  the  village  tradesmen  and  the  gombeen 
men  will  only  lend  at  an  interest  of  20  or  30  per  cent.  The 
Raiffeisen  Bank,  thanks  to  the  unlimited  liability  of  its 
members,8  can  work  a  miracle  whereby  a  number  of  per- 
sons, all  separately  insolvent,  are  rendered  solvent  by  com- 
bination and  by  their  individual  honesty.     Sometimes 

8  The  Raiffeisen  Bank,  owing  to  the  unlimited  liability  of  its  members, 
is  peculiarly  suited  to  the  people  of  the  West,  who  live  under 
comparatively  uniform  economic  and  financial  conditions.  In  the 
East  and  South,  where  there  are  large  and  small  farmers,  unlimited 
liability  is  not  the  rule. 

2  G 


450  POSSIBILITIES    OF   REGENERATION 

these  banks  have  a  small  capital  arising  from  shares 
or  deposits,  but  more  usually  they  borrow  money  for 
circulation  at  4  or  5  per  cent.  The  Congested  Districts 
Board  and  the  Department  of  Agriculture  advance 
money  to  them  at  lower  rates.  They  advance  loans  for 
a  period  of  three  months  to  their  members,  at  a  yearly 
rate  of  5  or  6  per  cent.  There  are  no  bad  debts,  even 
amongst  those  agricultural  labourers  who  have  them- 
selves entered  on  the  registers  as  "  beggars."  Money  is 
lent  only  for  reproductive  work,  after  this  work  has  been 
approved  of  by  the  officials  of  the  Society.  The  peasants 
are  said  to  realise  profits  of  from  25  to  150  per  cent,  on 
these  loans.  These  profits  are  principally  made  by  the 
rearing  of  cattle.  It  is  considered  an  honour  amongst 
them  to  be  chosen  as  manager  of  a  bank.  Usury  and 
the  usurer  are  disappearing.  9  But  however  great  the 
material  advantages  oi  the  co-operative  credit  system 
may  be,  the  educational  results  are  still  more  important. 
As  an  instrument  of  education  and  of  economic  progress 
there  is  nothing  to  equal  these  Co-operative  Credit 
Associations.  They  give  the  people  a  good  business 
training,  whilst  the  system  of  unlimited  liability  on 
which  they  are  worked  enforces  prudence,  accuracy,  and 
foresight,  and  effects  a  natural  separation  of  the  working 
bees  from  the  drones.10  It  is  these  qualities  which  have 
converted  the  credit  system  irom  a  ruinous  temptation 
into  the  most  efficacious  of  stimulants.  Formerly  the 
debtors  of  the  village  used  to  hide  themselves  ;  now  it 
is  considered  a  matter  of  pride  to  have  borrowed  from 
the  bank.  An  interest  in  the  bank,  as  one  of  the  secre- 
taries has  pointed  out,  often  makes  the  creditor  more 
sober,  more  active,  and  more  economical.  Thus  the  roots 
of  drunkenness  and  dissipation  are  cut.11      A  priest    at 

9  Ireland  Industrial  and  Agricultural,  p.  131,  etc.  Cf.  the  Annual 
Reports  of  the  I.A.O.S.  A  need  is  now  expressed  for  a  central  bank 
for  the  rural  banks,  analogous  to  the  Caisse  Centrale,  which  was 
founded  at  Darmstadt  in  Germany,  in  1899.  The  State  would  have 
to  advance  money  at  low  rates  of  interest  to  this  bank. 

10  Plunkett,  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  19. 
1  Sixth  Report  of  the  I.A.O.S.,  p.  13. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  451 

Belmullet  states  that  the  Raiffeisen  Bank  "  has  raised 
the  moral  tone  of  the  parish,  it  has  made  the  people 
more  industrious,  more  anxious  to  keep  their  promises, 
and  generally  more  honest."  I2  In  this  way  the  moral 
force  of  co-operation  is  realised,  and  from  the  practice 
of  the  collective  virtue  "  Help  one  another  "  will  spring 
the  individual  virtue,  "  Help  thyself."  Herein  lies  the 
justification  of  the  first  principle  of  the  pioneers  of 
economic  regeneration  in  Ireland — "  Self-help  by  mutual 
help." 


III. — Technical  Instruction. 

These  men  preached  yet  another  lesson   to   Ireland. 
They  maintained  that  State  aid  was  essential  for  the 
purpose   of  giving  technical   or  business  instruction   to 
every    class     of    producers,    whether    agricultural,  com- 
mercial, or  industrial.     It  is  such  instruction  alone  that 
can  enable  these  producers  to  ply  their  trades  profitably 
and    to    meet    foreign    competition    on    equal    terms. 
Individual  initiative  and  independent   associations   can 
do  much  ;    there  are  many  things  which  they  alone  can 
do,  but  they  cannot  do  everything.     Neither  is  the  State 
all-powerful,  but  amongst  those  things  which   it  alone 
can  give  is  to  be  numbered  a  technical  and  business 
education.  Everywhere   abroad   large   sums   have     been 
granted  for  such  instruction  ;    in  Ireland  anything  that 
was  done  only  tended  until  recently  to  turn  young  people 
away  from  industrial  careers,  and  to  produce    officials, 
lawyers,   or  doctors.      So  long  as  the   Irish  lacked  the 
spirit  of  combination  and  the  spirit  of  initiative  the  basis 
of  progress  was  absent,  and  therefore  State  aid  would 
have  been  useless.     Now,  however,  Ireland,  owing  to  the 
results  gained  from  the  system  of  self-help,  has  shown 
herself  worthy  of  being  aided  in  her  efforts  for  reform, 
and  has  a  right  to  State  intervention.     Who,  indeed, 

12  Rev.  J.  O'Donovan,  New  Ireland  Review,  April,  1899   p.  74. 


452  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

could  contest  this  right  ?  Ireland  has  suffered  through 
the  Penal  Laws,  through  commercial  legislation,  even 
through  Free  Trade  ;  she  has  surely  a  right  to  com- 
pensation. The  State  destroyed  Ireland's  economic 
spirit  in  the  past  ;  the  State  should  therefore  endeavour 
as  far  as  possible  to  revive  it. 

But  in  Ireland  the  "  State  "  means  the  United  King- 
dom, or  the  Parliament  at  Westminster.  For  a  long 
time  no  notice  was  taken  of  Ireland's  demands  for  State 
aid  for  her  industries  and  agriculture.  In  the  summer  of 
1895  Sir  Horace  Plunkett  started  a  Committee  of  In- 
quiry to  examine  the  question  from  a  practical  point  of 
view.  This  committee  was  composed  of  practical, 
industrial  and  commercial  Irishmen  of  different  political 
opinions.  At  its  sessions  Father  Finlay,  a  Jesuit,  met 
Dr.  Kane,  Grand  Master  of  the  Belfast  Orangemen, 
whilst  Mr.  John  Redmond,  the  leader  of  the  Parnellite 
Party,  sat  next  Unionists  like  The  O'Conor  Don  and 
Lord  Mayo.  For  political  reasons  the  anti-Parnellites 
refused  to  attend.  The  Recess  Committee,  as  it  was 
called,  occupied  itself  with  inquiries  into  the  methods 
of  procedure  adopted  abroad,  especially  in  Germany, 
Denmark,  Belgium  and  France.  With  regard  to  the 
last-mentioned  country,  they  obtained  sound  advice  from 
M.  Tisserand,  then  Director-General  of  Agriculture. 
The  report  of  the  Recess  Committee,1  a  most  remarkable 
piece  of  work,  formed  the  basis  of  a  Bill  which  became 
law  in  1899,2  during  the  Chief  Secretaryship  of  Mr. 
Gerald  Balfour.  This  Act  established  a  Department  of 
Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction  in  Ireland. 3 

1  Report  of  the  Recess  Committee,  Dublin,  1896.  A  new  edition,  with, 
notes  and  preface  by  Mr.  T.  P.  Gill,  has  just  been  published  (Dublin, 
1907).  The  reports  on  the  enquiries  made  abroad  are  to  be  found  in 
appendices  to  the  Report.  The  Report  itself  has  been  entirely  revised 
by  Mr.  Gill. 

2  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction  (Ireland)  Act  (62  and  63 
Vic,  c.  50). 

3  The  new  Department  had  a  precursor  in  Ireland  in  the  shape  of 
the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  established  in  1731,  with  the  object  of 
developing  agriculture,  manufactures  and  other  useful  arts  and  sciences. 
During  many  years  this  Society  received  considerable  grants  from  the 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  453 

The  new  Department  is  managed  by  a  Vice-President, 4 
and  by  a  General  Secretary,  Mr.  T.  P.  Gill,  who  is  un- 
doubtedly "  the  right  man  in  the  right  place.  "5  The 
Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland  exercises  a  somewhat  nominal 
authority  over  the  department,  and  is  responsible  to 
Parliament  for  its  actions.  The  Department  disposes  of 
an  annual  sum  of  £166,000,  drawn  almost  exclusively 
from  Irish  sources.6  The  heads  of  the  Department  are 
assisted  firstly  by  a  Consultative  Council,  or  Council  of 
Agriculture,  two-thirds  of  the  members  of  which  are 
elected  by  the  County  Councils,  and  one-third  nominated 
by  the  Department,  and  secondly  by  two  committees  of 
control,    the    Agricultural    Board    and    the    Board     of 

State,  for  the  purpose  of  subsidising  industries  and  agriculture.  At 
the  present  day  the  Society  is  chiefly  occupied  in  developing  the  science 
of  agriculture,  and  it  organises  the  celebrated  Dublin  Horse  Show. 
It  is,  however,  an  independent  Society,  of  an  academic  character,  and 
its  influence,  though  good,  is  very  limited. 

4  According  to  law,  the  Vice-President,  like  the  English  Ministers, 
should  be  a  Member  of  Parliament  and  responsible  to  Parliament. 
Sir  H.  Plunkett,  though  he  lost  his  seat  at  the  General  Election  of 
1900,  was,  nevertheless,  retained  as  head  of  the  "Department"  by 
the  Conservative  Government,  in  order  that  he  might  put  the  new 
work  on  a  sound  basis  ;  he  has  even  been  provisionally  retained 
by  the  new  Liberal  Government. 

5  Mr.  T.  P.  Gill,  who  was  formerly  a  Nationalist  Member  of 
Parliament,  has  done  much  to  ensure  the  success  of  the  new  Department. 
He  is  a  very  able  man,  and  his  Nationalist  opinions  give  him  a 
considerable  influence  amongst  the  people.  As  member  and  Honorary 
Secretary  of  the  Recess  Committee  he  had  already  taken  an  important 
part  in  the  work  of  this  Committee.  He  elaborated  its  conclusions 
and  recommendations,  and  helped  to  prepare  the  Bill  which  created 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction. 

b  Of  this,  the  sum  of  £78,000  is  taken  from  the  Local  Taxation 
(Ireland)  Account  (tnis  sum  was  formerly  paid  to  the  Commissioners 
of  National  Education),  and  £70,000  from  the  Irish  Church  Fund. 
An  Act  passed  in  1902  added  £5,000  to  this  annual  grant.  An  annual 
sum  of  £55,000  is  devoted  to  Technical  Instruction,  a  sum  of  £15,000 
to  the  Irish  College  of  Veterinary  Surgeons,  and  a  sum  of  £10,000  to 
Sea  Fisheries.  Moreover,  when  the  Department  was  first  established 
it  received  a  capital  sum  of  £200,000.  A  good  proportion  of  this  sum, 
with  the  savings  of  the  first  few  years,  has  been  put  in  reserve  for 
possible  extra  expenditure.  I  have  already  remarked  that  the  old 
Equivalent  Grant,  voted  in  1889  for  purposes  of  technical  instruction, 
has  not  been  handed  over  to  Ireland  for  the  past  few  years  by  the 
Treasury.  On  the  other  hand,  a  sum  of  £7,000  was  granted  in  1905 
for  the  same  purpose,  but  this  is  no  compensation,  because  the  money 
is  taken  from  the  Ireland  Development  Grant,  which  belongs  by  right  to 
Ireland.  (See  the  Department's  Reports,  1901-1902,  p.  6  ;  1903-1904, 
p.    18  ;    1904-1905,  p.  10). 


454  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

Technical  Instruction.  These  two  committees  (two-thirds 
of  the  members  of  which  are  elected)  supervise  the  opera- 
tions and  expenditure  of  the  Department.  As  Mr.  Gerald 
Balfour  has  said,  they  are  in  financial  matters  in  the 
same  position  with  regard  to  the  Department  as  Parlia- 
ment" is  with  regard  to  the  Government.  This  introduc- 
tion of  the  principle  of  autonomy  and  the  principle  of 
representation  into  the  management  of  Irish  affairs  is  of 
quite  recent  date.  It  is  a  hopeful  sign  for  the  future, 
and  stands  in  natural  connection  with  the  foundation  of 
Local  Government  on  the  elective  principle  by  the  Act 
of  1898. 

The  new  Department  exists  in  order  to  aid,  improve 
and  develop  agriculture  and  industries.8  But  how  does 
it  propose  to  attain  this  end  ?  Will  it  content  itself  with 
distributing  subsidies  and  other  such  aid  ?  Or  will  it 
finally  set  up  as  a  manufacturer  or  trader  under  pretence 
of  encouraging  industry  and  commerce  ?  Nothing  is 
further  from  the  minds  of  those  who  guide  its  policy  than 
the  wish  to  discourage  individual  initiative,  or  to  relieve 
the  people  from  all  economic  difficulties.     Rather  do  they 

7  The  Council  of  Agriculture  must  meet  at  least  once  a  year  ;  it 
discusses  questions  of  public  interest  with  regard  to  the  Act  of  1899, 
and  as  a  matter  of  fact  its  sphere  of  action  is  somewhat  narrow  ;  but 
it  has  the  advantage  of  bringing  the  Department  into  contact  with  the 
representatives  of  public  opinion.  The  Agricultural  Board  consists  of 
eight  members  chosen  by  the  Council  of  Agriculture,  and  four  members 
nominated  bv  the  Department.  The  composition  of  the  Board  of 
Technical  Education  is  analogous,  but  rather  more  complicated 
(Art.  10).  A  joint  Committee  serves  as  a  bond  of  union  between  the 
Department  and  the  Boards  of  Education  (Art.  23).  Besides  its 
agricultural  and  industrial  functions  (which  are  not  defined,  and, 
therefore,  not  limited  by  law)  the  Department  has  undertaken  many 
duties  formerlv  divided  amongst  different  authorities,  such  as  the 
control  of  veterinary  and  sanitary  matters,  the  publication  of 
agricultural  and  industrial  statistics,  the  administration  of  annual 
grants  for  instruction  in  "  Science  and  Arts,"  the  control  of  sea  and 
river  fishing,  of  railwavs  and  canals,  and  of  various  institutions  such 
as  the  Bo  val  College  of  Science,  the  Science  and  Art  Museum,  the 
National  Librarv  (Dublin),  the  Metropolitan  School  of  Art,  the  Albert 
Agricultural  College  (Dublin),  and  the  Munster  Institute  (Cork).  This 
svstem  of  administration  is  more  or  less  provisional  ;  sooner  or  later 
ail  these  independent  Boards  must  be  re -organised  and  formed  into 
fewer  but  larger  Departments. 

S  First  Report,  1900-1901,  p.  1. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  455 

wish  to  encourage  them  to  overcome  these  difficulties, 
and  to  teach  them  to  use  their  own  initiative  aright.  The 
method  employed  is  that  of  helping  the  individual  to 
help  himself.  They  want  to  give  a  technical  education  to 
all  those  who  are  taking  part  in  the  economic  life  of  the 
country,  and  at  the  same  time  to  give  good  general 
information  to  those  engaged  in  agriculture,  industry, 
or  commerce,  information  which  only  a  central  authority 
can  be  in  a  position  to  give.  Thus  they  hope  to  make  each 
man  the  instrument  of  his  own  salvation,  to  remove  all 
obstacles  to  industrial  reform,  and  to  lay  the  foundations 
of  economic  regeneration  in  Ireland. 

This  work  of  spreading  information,  of  controlling  and 
of  superintending,  belongs  to  such  Departments  in  all 
countries,  but  in  Ireland  the  special  object  of  the 
Department  has  been  to  establish  a  system  of  technical 
instruction  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  country,  and  to 
those  workers  engaged  in  agriculture,  commerce,  and 
other  industries  It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  into  much 
detail,  in  the  first  place  because  the  system  is  only  in  its 
infancy,  and  in  the  second  because  it  has  been  modelled 
on  analogous  systems  on  the  Continent,  and  especially 
in  France,  with  this  difference,  that  Ireland  is  profiting 
by  the  experience  of  her  neighbours,  and  will  thus  avoid 
many  mistakes.  Amongst  the  institutions  which  the 
Irish  Department  has  already  established  or  reorganised 
may,  however,  be  mentioned  the  appointment  of 
itinerant  instructors,  the  opening  of  science  classes  in 
secondary  schools,  of  technical  schools,  and  of  evening 
classes,  all  with  a  system  of  scholarships  which  will  enable 
young  students  to  obtain  a  superior  technical  education 
at  the  College  of  Science  in  Dublin.  9  The  Irish  system 
has,  however,  one  original  feature,  namely,  the  co- 
operation of  the  central  authority,  the  Department,  with 
local  authorities,  Town  and  County  Councils,  and 
especially  agricultural  or  technical  committees  appointed 
by  these  Councils,  in  the  management  of  financial  and  other 

9  See  the  details  in  the  Department's  Annual   Reports- 


456  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

matters.  The  Department  initiates  all  undertakings,  and 
all  projected  schemes,  but  nothing  is  done  in  any  localitv 
without  the  collaboration  of  the  local  authorities,  and 
on  the  condition  that  these  latter  pay  half  the  expenses. 
Of  course  there  are  certain  central  services  and  institutions 
which  do  not  fall  within  this  rule.  The  principle  of  a 
central  authority  is  thus  assured,  whilst  at  the  same  time 
local  interest  is  aroused,  and  a  spirit  of  enterprise  and 
responsibility  stimulated.  In  fact,  after  some  inevitable 
quarrels,  the  majority  of  the  towns  and  County  Councils 
have  come  into  line  with  the  Department.  Indeed,  of 
all  the  administrative  bodies  in  Ireland,  the  Department 
of  Agriculture  is  the  only  one  in  which  the  people  have 
any  measure  of  confidence,  although  of  course  they  have 
never  renounced  their  privilege  of  criticising  it.10  The 
work  to  be  done  presented,  moreover,  some  exceptional 
difficulties.  To  begin  with  there  was  an  absence  of 
teachers  qualified  to  make  use  of  the  new  methods  of 
instruction  ;  the  masters  and  the  pupils  had  all  to  be 
trained.11  Furthermore,  if  the  Irish  system  of  agriculture, 
antiquated  as  it  was,  required  to  be  improved  and 
amended,  in  the  matter  of  industries,  nothing  at  all  or 
practically  nothing  had  yet  been  done.  How  create  a 
system  of  industrial  education  for  non-existent  industries  ? 
'  You  are  encouraging  emigration,"  cried  some  critics. 
"  There  is  no  employment  to  be  had  in  Ireland,  and  the 
workers  whom  you  train  will  be  forced  to  seek  a  living 
elsewhere."  This  may  be  true,  but  everything  must 
have  a  beginning.  It  is  useless  to  deny  the  fact  that 
one  of  the  principal  causes  of  Irish  stagnation  lies  in  the 
incompetency  of  the  workman,  and  therefore  it  is  necessary 
to  educate  +he  workman  in  order  to  inaugurate  an 
industrial  revival. 


10  Every  Town  or  County  Council  has   a  Committee   (elected)  of 
Agriculture  and  Technical  Instruction.    The  Department's  Reports  bear 

constant  testimony  to  the  zeal  and  ability  of  the  local  authorities. 

11  I  say  nothing  about  the  difficulty  of  winning  over  the  ignorant 
and  suspicious  peasant  ;    that  difficulty  exists  in  every  country. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  457 

Other  reproaches  are  also  levelled  at  the  new  Depart- 
ment. It  is  accused  of  belittling  Irish  ability,  and  seeking 
its  most  important  officials  outside  Ireland.  It  is  abused 
for  working  too  slowly  ;  people  say  that  it  is  too  fond 
of  talk  and  rhetoric,  and  can  show  very  little  useful 
work  or  effective  results.  The  more  advanced  critics 
say  that  the  Department  only  plays  with  the  problem, 
and  that  it  is  merely  a  screen  to  conceal  English  jealousy 
of  all  Irish  competition. 

It  is,  however,  impossible  not  to  recognise  that  the 
movement  inaugurated  by  the  Department,  and  generally 
favoured  by  the  Catholic  clergy  and  by  local  bodies,  has 
had  a  remarkable  and  beneficial  influence  on  the  maj  ority 
of  the  population.  Trained  not  only  by  co-operation, 
but  also  by  experience  on  local  elective  bodies,  the 
peasant  is  quickly  grasping  the  advantages  of  a  better 
agricultural  education  and  of  competent  advice  on 
agricultural  matters.  The  workingmen  of  the  towns,  too, 
have  responded  with  enthusiasm  to  the  offer  of  technical 
instruction.  This  is  to  a  great  extent  owing  to  the 
influence  of  the  Christian  Brothers,  who  were  the  pioneers 
of  the  new  movement,  which  they  afterwards  helped  to 
spread.  At  Clonmel,  in  the  autumn  of  1902,  I  happened 
to  be  present  at  the  opening  of  a  technical  school, 
established  by  the  Christian  Brothers  with  the  help  of 
the  Department.  It  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate 
the  interest  which  the  inhabitants  took  in  the  new  work, 
or  the  ardour,  energy,  and  hope  shown  by  young  people 
hitherto  weighed  down  under  the  yoke  of  national 
despondency.12 

Now  as  to  the  first  fruits  of  the  movement.  For  the 
last  ten  years  there  have  been  symptoms,  however  slight, 
of  an  industrial  revival,  particularly  in  the  South  of 
Ireland.  Herein  lies  some  hope  for  the  economic  future 
of  the  country.     A  few  years  ago  a  factory  for    bicycles 

2  A  Commission  to  enquire  into  the  working  of  the  Department 
was  appointed  by  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  March  31st,  1906.  It  published 
a  Majority  and  a  Minority  Report,  the  latter,  a  remarkable  document, 
being  due  to  Mr.  W.  L.  Micks. 


458  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

and  agricultural  machines  was  founded  in  Wexford.  A 
shipbuilding  yard  was  opened  in  Dublin  in  1902.  Paper 
and  bacon  factories,  and  woollen  manufactures,  have 
been  established  here  and  there  ;  in  1882  there  were  12 
woollen  mills  in  Ireland  ;  to-day  there  are  more  than 
100.  At  Sligo,  Newry,  Lucan  and  elsewhere,  power  is 
obtained  very  cheaply  by  means  of  large  turbines.  There 
are  factories  worked  by  electricity  in  Galway  and  other 
centres.  In  the  West  efforts  have  been  made  to  develop 
the  use  of  electricity  and  "  white  coal  "  or  water  power, 
and  also  to  utilise  the  immense  supply  of  peat  which 
should  be  in  future  one  of  Ireland's  most  valuable  assets. 
It  is  also  hoped  to  revive  such  artistic  industries  as  the 
manufacture  of  enamel,  pottery,  glass,  and  metal  repousse 
work.  It  seems  as  if  commercial  initiative  and  an 
industrial  spirit  were  about  to  reappear.  In  every  large 
town  the  traders  and  manufacturers  have  established 
industrial  associations  in  order  to  increase  the  sale  of 
Irish  goods,  to  seek  a  reduction  in  transport  rates,  to 
obtain  useful  information  as  to  markets,  and  finally  to 
organise  Exhibitions.  We  may  cite  yet  another  sign  of 
the  times .  Articles  of  Irish  manufacture,  formerly  re j  ected 
and  despised,  are  now  counterfeited  by  British  manu- 
facturers. Twenty  years  ago  Irish  tweeds  could  only  be 
sold  as  Cheviot  ;  now  Cheviot  tweeds  are  sold  as 
Irish  ! 


IV. 

I  have  endeavoured  to  explain  the  scope  and  the 
importance  of  these  initial  efforts  towards  economic 
regeneration.  As  will  be  seen,  the  object  of  the  movement 
is  not  to  make  Ireland  a  country  either  of  great  industries, 
or  of  grande  culture.  In  the  nature  of  things  small 
agricultural  holdings  and  large  grazing  farms  must  remain 
the  rule  in  Ireland.  But  if  the  peasant  proprietors  are 
to  hold  their  ground  they  must  be  organised  and  educated. 


ECONOMIC    REFORM  459 

Large  manufacturing  centres,  with  their  "  congestion  " 
of  workers,  such  as  one  sees  at  Birmingham  and 
Manchester,  will  always  be  the  exception  in  Ireland,  and 
they  are  neither  desirable  or  desired.  But  side  by  side 
with  agriculture  there  is  room  in  Ireland  for  the  majority 
of  those  industries  connected  with  agriculture.  There  is 
room  also  for  all  those  minor  industries  necessary  to  the 
existence  of  the  people,  not  to  mention  arts  and  crafts. 
With  a  little  education  the  Irish  Celt  should  be  able  to 
regain  his  traditional  taste  and  skill  in"  these  latter 
branches  of  industry.  During  the  nineteenth  century 
Denmark  and  Wurtemburg  have  brought  the  science  of 
agriculture  to  the  highest  pitch  of  perfection.  At  the 
same  time,  without  establishing  any  large  manu- 
factures, they  have  succeeded  in  creating  a  prosperous 
and  healthy  industrial  life.  The  problem  in  Ireland  is 
analogous  in  kind,  and  the  Irish  can  succeed  in  solving 
it — if  they  wish  to  do  so. 

Outside  its  economic  application,  the  new  movement 
is  of  social  importance  to  Ireland.  I  have  spoken'of  the 
educative  influence  of  co-operation,  and  of  local  self- 
government.  Up  to  a  certain  point  there  is  an  analogy 
between  these  influences  and  the  influence  of  technical 
or  professional  education.  Every  fresh  acquisition  of 
skill,  every  piece  of  experience  turned  over  in  thought 
increases  the  power  of  the  individual  ;  and  all  training 
and  discipline  are,  of  their  nature,  phenomena  of  progress. 
But  the  work  must  go  further.  Economic  education  is 
but  one  side,  the  beginning  of  social  education.  When 
a  German  savant  was  once  asked  what  in  his  opinion  had 
hitherto  prevented  the  regeneration  of  Ireland,  he  replied 
that  it  was  the  attempt  to  impose  individualism  on 
the  country  without  first  educing  and  educating  the 
individual. 

The  promoters  of  the  new  economic  movement  have 
undertaken  to  educe  and  educate  the  individual  in  a 
special  sense,  and  by  certain  special  methods.  At  the 
same  time  they  teach  men  who  are  divided    by  politics 


46o         POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION. 

or  religion  to  unite  together  for  the  common  good.  The 
economic  movement  should  not  exclude  other  movements. 
They  are  all  necessary  for  the  country's  good,  and  must 
be  developed  if  Ireland  is  to  be  saved  and  is  to  take  her 
place  amongst  the  nations.  For  as  that  great  Irishman, 
Thomas  Davis,  has  said  :  "  You  cannot  have  a  nation 
without  the  elements  of  a  nation,  and  one  of  the  first 
elements  of  a  nation  is  an  educated  democracy." 


CHAPTER  IV.— THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION 

In  the  foregoing  chapters  I  have  endeavoured  to  throw 
some  light  on  the  drift  and  possibilities  of  the  Irish 
Revival.  But  by  whose  agency  is  this  Revival  to  be 
achieved  ?  Not  by  that  of  the  Government,  which  is,  of 
its  very  essence,  anti-national.  The  landlords,  who  are 
indifferent  or  hostile,  are  also  out  of  the  question,  whilst 
the  middle  classes  are  debarred  from  leadership  by  paucity 
of  numbers.  What  of  the  Catholic  clergy,  who  have  been, 
for  two  hundred  years,  the  sole  mainstay  of  an  exceedingly 
religious  people  ?  On  the  other  hand,  however,  are 
there  not  certain  elements  in  the  religious  situation  which 
may  prove  obstacles  in  the  path  of  the  national 
movement  ?  Ireland  is  distracted  by  denominational 
struggles,  sectarian  fanaticism,  and  the  first  phases  of 
anti-clericalism.  Nowhere  is  the  religious  question  more 
a  part  of  social  life,  and  nowhere  are  differences  of  creed 
more  connected  with  political  differences.  In  the  study 
of  the  religious  question,  therefore,  we  should  find  some 
hints  as  to  the  future  of  Ireland.1 


I. — The  Churches  in  Ireland. 

Owing  to  emigration  and  immigration  the  number  of 
Catholics  in  Ireland  during  the  last  two  and  a  half 
centuries  has  varied  between  75  per  cent,  and  80  per  cent. 

1  On  the  religious  question,  see  Cardinal  Perraud,  Etudes  sur  V Irlands 
Contemporaire,  II.  passim. 

Life,  Times,  and  Correspondence  of  Dr.  Doyle,  by  W.  J.  Fitzpatrick, 
Dublin,  1880.  Letters  of  John  MacHale,  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  Dublin, 
1893.  Life  of  John  MacHale,  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  by  O'Reilly,  New 
York,   1890.      Life  of  Archbishop  Murray,  by  Meagher,  Dublin,   1853. 


462  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

of  the  total  population.  In  1901,  taking  the  last  Census,2 
the  Catholics  numbered  3,308,661,  or  74.21  per  cent,  of 
the  population  ;  the  Episcopalians  581,089,  or  13.03  per 
cent.  ;  and  the  Presbyterians  443,276,  or  9.94  per  cent. 
There  were  besides  125,749  individuals  of  different  other 
persuasions.  These  last  may  be  eliminated,  and  so  may 
the  Presbyterians,  who  are  descendants  of  the  Scotch 
colonists  brought  over  by  James  II.,  and  are  collected 
together  in  the  North-East  corner  of  Ulster.  The 
Presbyterian  Church  has  always  been  independent  of  the 
State,  and,  except  for  the  Regium  Donum,  it  has  never 
enjoyed  any  privilege  or  subsidy.  Were  it  not  for  the 
persecutions  they  endured  in  the  eighteenth  century,  one 
might  say  that  the  Presbyterians  resemble  those  fortunate 
people  who  have  no  history. 

There  remain  the  Episcopalians  and  the  Catholics. 
The  Episcopalians,  or  members  of  the  Anglican 
Communion,  represent  the  party  of  the  English  Ascen- 
dancy in  Ireland.  They  belong  to  a  class  which  is  rich, 
or  at  least  comfortable  ;  are  usually  landed  proprietors, 
officials,  professional  men,  or  members  of  the  lower  middle 
classes  ;  and  although  in  part  concentrated  in  Ulster,  are 
also  to  be  found  in  the  other  provinces  isolated  and,  as 
it  were,  lost  in  the  midst  of  a  non-Protestant  population. 

The  Catholics  constitute  the  great  bulk  of  those  who 
can  properly  be  called  the  Irish  people,  the  "natives." 
England  has  despoiled  them  of  their  churches,  their  lands, 
and  their  government.  Socially  they  are  divided  from 
the  Episcopalians  by  a  horizontal  line  of  demarcation. 
Above  this  line  are  the  privileged  classes,  the  friends  of 

Writings  of  Cardinal  Cullen,  by  Cardinal  Moran,  Dublin,  1882.  Sir 
C.  G.  Duffy,  Young  Ireland  and  Four  Years  of  Irish  History.  Maynooth 
College,  its  Centenary  History,  by  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Healy,  Dublin,  1895. 
Annual  Record  of  the  Maynooth  Union.  Cf.  the  Evidence  annexed  to 
the  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education  (1902). 
Cf.  Fr.  Sheehan's  novels  on  Irish  clerical  life.  Cf.  with  reference  to 
modern  anti-Catholic  controversy,  Filson  Young,  Ireland  at  the  Cross 
Roads,  London,  1904. 

2  General  Report,  P.  I.,  etc.,  p.  50.     Cf.  De  Beaumont,  op.  cit.  II.  390, 
and  Cardinal  Perraud,  IL,  op.  cit.  466. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  463 

the  "  Castle  "  ;  below  it  the  mass  of  the  people,  Catholic 
and  poor.  In  England,  on  the  other  hand,  the  line  of 
demarcation  is  vertical  ;  and  Catholicism  numbers 
amongst  its  adherents  a  duke,  several  peers,  persons  of 
the  middle  classes,  and  workingmen — representatives,  in 
a  word,  of  all  classes  of  society. 

In  Ireland  the  unequal  struggle  between  Protestants 
and  Catholics  has  lasted  for  more  than  three  centuries. 
It  has  been  exhausting  and  disastrous,  and  is  deplored 
by  all  true  patriots  who  desire  a  "united  Ireland,"  such 
as,  a  hundred  years  ago,  existed  just  long  enough  to  show 
that  it  was  capable  of  existence.  On  the  one  side  are 
numbers,  poverty,  and  the  signs  and  fruits  of  slavery  ; 
on  the  other  wealth,  honours  and  power,  the  rusted  sword 
and  yellowed  parchments  of  persecution.  It  is  not  the 
Catholic  majority  that  takes  the  initiative  in  persecution. 
Haunted  by  the  memory  of  the  Penal  Laws,  they  are 
but  gradually  freeing  themselves  from  the  idea  that  the 
Protestant  is  the  master  of  Ireland  and  that  they  are  his 
slaves,  that  he  is  a  free  man  and  they  are  helots.  They 
are  rather  anti-English  than  anti-Protestant  ;  if  they 
attack  the  members  of  the  Ascendancy  party  or  the 
English  Colony,  it  is  rather  on  account  of  their  tyranny 
and  their  privileges  than  on  account  of  their  religion. 
No  one  is  more  popular  than  a  Protestant  who  is  also  a 
Nationalist  ;  in  fact,  there  have  always  been  Protestants 
amongst  the  Nationalist  Members  of  Parliament,  and 
evil-minded  people  even  say  that  Catholic  electors  like  to 
vote  for  a  Protestant  if  he  is  a  Nationalist.  They  are 
sure  that  he  will  not  betray  them,  for  he  has  burned  his 
boats.  * 

3  Speaking  at  Chester  in  1886,  Lord  Spencer,  a  former  Lord 
Lieutenant,  said,  "  I  have  known  instances  not  a  few  while  I  was  in 
Ireland  of  bigotry  and  intolerance  .  .  .  but  I  am  bound  to  say  the 
bigotry  and  intolerance  was  on  the  side,  not  of  the  Catholic  majority, 
but  of  the  Protestant  minority."  Another  Protestant,  Sir  Horace 
Plunkett,  writes  :  "  My  own  experience  distinctly  proves  that  it  is  no 
disadvantage  to  a  man  to  be  a  Protestant  in  Irish  political  life,  and 
that  where  opposition  is  shown  to  him  by  Roman  Catholics,  it  is  almost 
invariably  on  political,  social,  or  agrarian,  but  not  on  religious  grounds."' 
(Ireland  in  the  New  Century,    p.   106).       There  are  many  examples  in 


464  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

The  anti-Catholicism  of  Irish  Protestants,  on  the  other 
hand,  equals  and  sometimes  surpasses  their  anti- 
Nationalism.  In  this  they  differ  from  the  English 
Protestants,  whose  liberal  and  tolerant  spirit  is  continually 
offended  by  their  demeanour.  To  the  Irish  Protestant 
the  Catholic  religion  is  not  only  the  "  Error  of  Rome," 
it  is  also  the  religion  of  the  conquered,  and  as  such  only 
to  be  despised.  They  hate  it  too  because  it  is  the  one 
possession  of  Ireland  which  they  have  not  been  able  to 
confiscate  ;  it  has  survived  massacres,  Penal  Laws, 
proselytism,  and  now  lives  to  witness  the  defeat  of  the 
Protestants  themselves.  There  are  indeed  a  few  Irish 
Protestants  who  are  courageous  enough  to  be  liberal  ; 
would  that  there  were  more  !  There  is  nothing  in  the 
world  to  compare  with  the  civil  war  waged  by  anti- 
Catholic  fanatics  in  L'lster.  In  Belfast  and  Port  ado  wn, 
for  instance,  there  are  continual  disturbances  and 
demonstrations  against  the  Catholics.  The  "  Papists  " 
are  attacked  with  cries  of  "  Croppies  lie  down,"  and  "  To 
Hell  with  the  Pope  "  ;  "  Papist  "  workmen  are  excluded 
from  the  factories  ;  the  "  Papist  Bishop  "  is  flouted  by 
the  popular  orators, — and  this  in  Belfast,  in  which  the 
Protestants  are  three  to  one.  Throughout  the  rest  of 
Ireland  the  Protestants,  whilst  preaching  tolerance,  display 
that  zeal  for  religion  of  which  Burke  said  that  it  never 
shows  "  any  wonderful  heat  but  when  it  afflicts  or 
mortifies  our  neighbour."  The}'  clamour  for  persecution, 
they  attack  Papistry  in  the  newspapers,  at  public  meetings, 
and  in  the  pulpit.  They  circulate  anti-Catholic  literature, 
and  support  street-preachers,  and  so-called  "  Medical 
Missions  "  which  busy  themselves  more  with  "  conver- 
sions "  than  with  cures.  Further,  they  exclude  Catholics 
from  public  offices,  from  juries,  and  from  the  best  positions 

history  of  the  tolerance  of  Catholic  Ireland  ;  amongst  other  in- 
stances we  have  the  honours  accorded  to  the  Protestant  Arch- 
bishop Bedell,  and  the  Act  for  the  establishment  of  liberty  of 
conscience  passed  by  the  Parliament  of  1689,  at  the  height  of  the 
Catholic  reaction  under  James  II.  (C/.  Lecky,  England  in  the  18th 
Century,  II.,  3S9). 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  465 

in  trade  and  commerce.4  The  motto  No  Papist  need 
apply  is  still  too  true  in  Ireland.  The  "  Papists,"  however, 
are  at  last  beginning  to  grow  restive  under  the  spur,  and 
to  assert  their  rightful  position  in  the  country.  There  is, 
indeed,  a  small  minority  of  Catholics  who  cling  on  to  the 
skirts  of  the  Ascendancy  party,  those  "  Castle  Catholics" 
of  whom  Daniel  O'Connell  used  to  say  "  The  Lord  forgive 
me  for  having  emancipated  such  fellows  as  those."  The 
majority,  however,  are  plucking  up  courage,  and  intend 
making  a  reality  of  that  "  Catholic  Emancipation  "  of 
1829,  which,  socially  speaking,  is  as  yet  only  a  shadow. 
The  recent  Local  Government  Act  (1898)  has  given  the 
Catholics,  by  the  natural  operation  of  the  popular  vote, 
the  patronage  of  all  those  posts  which  were  hitherto 
monopolised  by  Protestants.  Moreover,  there  is  an 
agitation  on  foot  to  further  the  claims  of  the  Catholics 
to  a  just  proportion  of  situations  in  railways,  banks,  and 
the  Post  Offices.  Consequently  there  is  also  a  revival  of 
Protestant  anti-Catholicism.  Diatribes  are  launched  by 
the  Anglican  Bishops  against  Rome  ;  there  are  indignant 
protestations  against  the  establishment  of  a  Catholic 
University  ;  and  a  wild  clamour  is  raised,  when,  on  the 
death  of  Queen  Victoria,  the  more  tolerant  Protestants 
advocate  the  suppression  in  the  Coronation  Oath  of  the 
celebrated  declaration  against  Catholic  "  idolatry."  We 
have,  in  brief,  all  the  complaints  that  might  naturally 
be  expected  from  an  Oligarchy  which  sees  its  privileges 
and  its  superiority  attacked  by  the  "  idolators,"  and  is 
exasperated  at  the  final  defeat  of  the  efforts  which  for 
three  centuries  it  has  put  forth  to  "  decatholicise  " 
Ireland. 

From  the  Reformation  to  the  present  day,  Protestant 
England  has  done  its  best  to  make  the  sister  island 
Protestant  also.     Evervone  knows  that  the  conversion  of 


4  The  daughter  of  an  Anglican  clergy"  an  records  that  she  used, 
as  a  child,  when  she  went  out  walking  on  Sundays,  to  distribute 
proselvtising  pamphlets,  which  she  had  been  made  to  copy  out  during 
the  previous  week! 

2  H 


466  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

Ireland  to  Christianity  was  followed  in  that  country  by 
a  magnificent  flowering  forth  of  religious  enthusiasm,  and 
by  a  golden  age  in  art  and  learning.  Everyone  knows 
too,  that  from  the  sixth  to  the  eighth  centuries  the  "  Island 
of  Saints  and  Scholars  "  sent  missionaries  all  over  Europe, 
and  that  students  flocked  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to 
her  schools  at  Armagh,  Lismore,  and  Clonmacnoise.  After 
the  Norse  invasion  this  Celtic  Church  of  Ireland  was 
restored  by  Saint  Malachy,  but  when  the  Anglo-Normans 
invaded  Ireland  in  the  twelfth  century,  it  found  itself 
supplanted  within  the  Pale  by  a  rival  church  with  an 
English  priesthood.  In  the  sixteenth  century  the 
Reformation  was  accepted  by  this  English  Church  within 
the  Pale,  but  it  was  rejected  by  the  Celtic  Church,  and 
by  the  whole  of  Celtic  Ireland  Under  Henry  VIII.  and 
"Good  Queen  Bess,"  the  era  of  persecution  and  confis- 
cation began.  Finding  herself  unable  to  "reform"  Irish 
Catholicism,  Elizabeth  proscribed  it,  and  as  she  could 
not  make  Protestants  of  the  Irish,  she  "  planted  " 
Ireland  with  colonies  of  English  Protestants.  She  formally 
"  established  "  the  Anglican  Church  of  Ireland,  and 
endowed  it  with  churches,  monasteries,  and  vast  grants 
of  land.  She  massacred  and  banished  the  Papists,  and, 
as  Cardinal  Perraud  says,  made  "  few  apostates,  but 
many  martyrs."  After  the  Rebellion  of  1641,  Cromwell 
resumed  and  completed  her  work.  Hibernia  ftacata  : 
Ireland  was  at  length  pacified,  but  she  remained 
Catholic. 

In  the  eighteenth  century,  persecution,  hitherto  a  matter 
of  force,  became  legalised  by  the  celebrated  Penal  Laws, 
that  code  of  oppression  and  corruption  which  declared 
the  Catholics  to  be  outlaws.  But  Irish  Catholicism 
survived  the  Penal  Laws  as  it  had  survived  persecution 
and  bloodshed,  and  as  it  will  survive  the  proselytising 
campaign  of  the  present  day,  whether  it  be  official  or 
officious,  conducted  through  the  school  and  the  workhouse, 
or  through  the  societies  of  public  and  private  charity 
which  seek  to  kill  "  superstition  "  by  kindness. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  467 

At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  Ireland  began 
for  the  first  time  since  the  Reformation  to  enjoy  a  little 
peace,  and  from  that  time  onwaid  we  have  to  chronicle 
regeneration  and  expansion.  But  we  must  first  follow 
out  the  history  of  the  Established  Church,  or,  as  it  is 
called  in  the  Statutes,  the  Church  of  Ireland. 


II. — The  Church  of  Ireland  and  the 
Disestablishment. 

At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  during  a 
great  part  of  the  nineteenth,  the  Anglican  Church  was 
still  supreme  in  Ireland.  She  was  the  Church  of  the 
ruling  minority,  the  rampart  of  the  "  Garrison,"  and 
England's  first  line  of  defence  in  Ireland.  Subject  to 
Parliament  as  regards  her  formularies  and  discipline,  and 
to  the  Crown  in  the  choice  of  her  Bishops,  she  was  one 
of  the  most  important  instruments  of  authority  of  the 
State.  But  her  influence  was  rather  secular  than 
spiritual,  for  her  clergy,  forgetting  their  evangelical 
mission,  made  themselves  agents  of  the  Government. 
The  emblem  and  instrument  of  English  rule,  the 
"  Establishment  "  was  a  terrible  burden  to  Catholic 
Ireland,  and  was  hated  even  by  the  Presbyterians. 
Although  laden  with  the  plunder  of  the  confiscations, 
and  rich  with  the  spoils  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  yet 
extorted — by  cruel  and  exacting  methods — its  annual 
revenue  of  tithes  from  the  "  Papist  "  peasants.  In  1868 
its  yearly  income  amounted  to  £613,984.  Of  this  sum 
£204,933  was  drawn  from  rents  paid  by  10,000  tenants, 
distributed  over  900  estates,  and  £364,225  from  the  tithe- 
rent  charges.  The  Church  had  therefore  a  capital  of 
about  £16, 000,000. l     Excessive  wealth  inevitably  led  to 

1  Thorn's  Official  Directory,  1903,  p.  680.  Report  of  the  Commissioners 
of  Church  Temporalities  in  Ireland  for  the  period  1869- 1880,  Dublin, 
1880,  p.  6  and  7.  Ball,  The  Reformed  Church  in  Ireland,  London,  1886, 
p.  270.  See  Perraud,  op.  cit.,  II.,  509,  for  the  details  of  the  methods 
employed  in  the  letting  of  the  Church  lands  (with  reference  to  the 


468  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

abuses.  The  dignitaries  of  the  Church  were  rich  and 
idle,  whilst  the  lower  clergy  found  it  difficult  to  support 
existence.  One  half  of  the  beneficiaries  with  incomes 
varying  from  £800  to  £3,000,  were  absentees.  In  1869 
there  were  199  parishes  without  a  single  Protestant 
inhabitant,  and  107  containing  on  an  average  two  or 
three  Protestant  families  apiece,  including  the  families 
of  the  parson  and  sexton.2  Here  and  there  churches 
and  cathedrals  were  falling  into  decay.  Such  was  the 
Irish  Church  which  Macaulay  in  1845  called  "  the  most 
absurd  and  unjustifiable  of  all  the  institutions  of  the 
civilised  world."  Some  years  later  Mr.  Lowe,  a 
Protestant  M.P.,  speaking  at  Westminster  of  the  same 
Church,  said,  "As  a  missionary  Church  it  has  failed 
utterly.  The  curse  of  barrenness  is  upon  it,  it  has  no 
leaves,  it  bears  no  blossoms,  it  yields  no  fruit.  Cut  it 
down  :    why  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  " 

From  the  very  beginning  of  the  era  of  reparation,  the 
Establishment,  that  instrument  of  conquest  and  of 
tyranny  was  doomed  to  destruction.  On  two  previous 
occasions,  England  had  endeavoured  to  save  it  by 
reforming  it.  In  1833  some  of  the  more  shocking  abuses 
were  removed,3  and  in  1838  the  tithes  were  converted 
into  a  land  tax  to  be  paid  by  the  landlords.  These  latter 
hastened  to  recoup  themselves  by  raising  the  rents  of 
their  tenants  in  proportion.  At  last,  in  1869,  Mr. 
Gladstone  passed  sentence  of  dissolution  on  the  whole 

practices  of  certain  Anglican  Bishops  like  Lord  Plunket)  (lb., 
303,  etc.).  See  lb.,  II.,  510,  for  an  account  of  the  incomes  of  some 
Anglican  Bishops.  Cf.  on  the  Church  of  Ireland  :  Cobbett,  A  History 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation  in  England  and  Ireland,  Dublin,  1867. 
Mant,  History  of  the  Church  of  Ireland,  1 839-1 841,  2  vols.  John 
Lemoinne,  l'Eglise  d' Irlande   (Revue   des  Deux  Mondes  for   15th  July, 

1843). 

2  W.  Maziere  Brady,  D.D.,  The  English  State  Church  in  Ireland, 
1869,  p.  158,  etc.  Cf.  Cardinal  Perraud,  op.  cit.,  II.,  512,  etc.  Lecky, 
England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  II.,  226-238. 

3  A  certain  number  of  benefices,  bishoprics  and  archbishoprics  were 
suppressed,  and  their  revenues,  with  the  proceeds  of  a  new  tax  on  the 
revenues  of  rich  benefices,  were  applied  to  a  special  fund  intended  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  Protestant  religion.  (Perraud,  op  cit.,  II 
p.  506,  etc.     Ball,  op.  cit.,  p.  229). 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  469 

institution,  and  carried  the  famous  Act  of  Disestablish- 
ment. To  use  the  French  expression,  he  separated  the 
(Episcopal)  Church  from  the  State.  This  was  an 
important  work,  and  it  would  be  well  to  note  its 
characteristics,  if  only  to  anticipate  the  comparisons  which 
might  be  drawn  between  Mr.  Gladstone's  very  liberal  and 
reverent  measure,  and  our  recent  French  Law  of 
Separation.  By  the  Act  of  1869  the  Church  of  Ireland 
was  disestablished  and  disendowed.  But  the  Disestablished 
Church  is  still  recognised  by  the  State  ;  she  has  only 
ceased  to  be  a  State  Church,  a  temporal  establishment 
imported  by  England  for  the  use  of  her  Garrison,  and 
maintained  in  the  midst  and  at  the  cost  of  Catholic 
Ireland.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Act  did  not  secularise 
all  the  immense  endowments  handed  over  by  the  State 
to  the  Church  at  the  Reformation  ;  the  Disestablished 
Church  was  put  in  a  position  to  re-endow  herself  by 
means  of  what  was  left  to  her  as  compensation  for  her 
vested  rights. 

She  has  lost  her  political  privileges  and  has  ceased  to 
send  representatives  to  the  House  of  Lords.  She  is  no 
longer  a  political  institution,  nor  an  integral  part  of  the 
State,  and  is  subject  neither  to  the  Crown,  nor  to 
Parliament.  She  is  at  liberty  to  organise  and  govern 
herself  as  she  wishes,  and  she  has  instituted  a  system  of 
representative  government,  with  Convocations  of  the 
clergy,  diocesan  and  provincial  Synods,  and  a  General 
Synod.4  The  Disestablished  Church  continues  to  be 
recognised  by  the  State,  but  as  a  religious,  and  not  as  a 
temporal  institution.  Her  dignitaries  have  a  certain 
order  of  precedence,  and  she  is  represented  at  official 
ceremonies.  Her  clergy  are  educated  at  the  Divinity 
School  of  Trinity  College.  Practically,  if  not  officially, 
Chuich  and  State  still  remain  allied  in  Ireland. 

4  The  representatives  of  the  laymen  on  the  Synods  outnumber  those 
of  the  clergy  in  a  proportion  of  two  to  one.  The  Bishops  are  elected 
by  the  Synod  of  the  Province  The  management  of  the  finances  of 
the  Disestablished  Church  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Representative  Church 
Body,  composed  of  65  members,  with  laymen  and  ecclesiastics  in  equal 
numbers. 


470         POSSIBILITIES    OF  REGENERATION 

As  for  the  property  of  the  Disestablished  Church, 
Cathedrals,  Churches,  with  their  contents,  cemeteries  and 
school-houses  were  all  left  to  her  free  of  charge,  and  she 
was  allowed  to  buy  back  the  rectories  at  a  very  low 
price. 5  The  lands  and  tithes  were  handed  over  to  a 
Commission  of  Liquidation,  which  was  entrusted  with 
the  work  of  determining  their  value.6  The  Act  reserved 
and  indemnified  all  vested  interests,  including  those  of  the 
landlords  who  owned  benefices,  and  who  were  paid  a  sum 
of  £778,888,  those  of  the  schoolmasters,  the  precentors, 
the  vergers,  the  clerks,  and  even  the  grave-diggers.  The 
surplus  of  the  Church  Fund  has  been  devoted  to  various 
purposes.  A  capital  sum  was  handed  over  to  the 
Presbyterians  in  order  to  compensate  them  for  the  loss 
of  the  Regium  Donum,  and  Maynooth  also  received  a 
capital  sum.  The  balance  of  the  Church  Fund  was  set 
aside  for  the  relief  of  public  suffering  and  misfortune  in 
Ireland. 7 

Of  all  the  vested  interests,  the  most  important  were 
naturally  the  stipends  of  the  clergy.      The  capitalised 

5  The  sites  of  the  rectories,  with  the  gardens  and  outhouses,  were 
sold  to  the  Disestablished  Church  for  ten  times  the  amount  of  the 
annual  rent  chargeable  on  these  estates.  As  for  the  houses  themselves, 
they  were  given  free  when  there  was  no  building  charge  (which  was 
being  paid  by  the  State)  ;  when  there  was  a  building  charge  they  were 
sold  for  what  Mr.  Gladstone  called  a  "  nominal  price."  (See  Hansard, 
Vol.  cxciv.,  p.  442;  Vol.  cxcv.  p.  16-30).  Cf.  Gladstone's  speech  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  26th  July,  1870.  Cf.  a  very  interesting  article 
by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  F.  Hogan  in  the  Freeman's  Journal,  17th  November, 
1904. 

6  The  Church  Temporalities  Commission.  In  1881  the  work  of  this 
body  was  taken  over  by  the  Irish  Land  Commission.  The  lands  were 
gradually  sold  and  the  tithes  were  capitalised.  It  was  arranged  that 
the  landlords  could  buy  back  these  tithes  with  money  borrowed  from 
the  Exchequer,  these  loans  to  be  payable  in  45  years.  For  an  account 
of  the  finances  of  the  Disestablishment  see  the  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioners of  Church  Temporalities  in  Ireland  for  the  period  1869- 1880, 
Dublin,   1880. 

7  The  sum  paid  to  Maynooth  College  was  £372,331  (fourteen  times 
the  amount  of  the  old  annual  grant).  The  Presbyterians  received  a 
capital  sum  of  £749,799,  plus  various  sums  for  non-capitalised 
annuities.  Later  Acts  have  made  inroads  upon  the  balance  of  the 
Church  Fund,  which  amounted  to  £7,000,000.  The  Fund  for  Teachers' 
Pensions  received  £1,300,000;  the  Royal  University  an  annuity  of 
£20,000  ;  the  Congested  Districts  Board,  £1,500,000  ;  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  an  annual  grant  of  £70,000.      A  fund  for  giving  relief 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  471 

value  of  these  stipends,  calculated  according  to  the 
mortality  tables,  and  augmented  by  a  bonus  of  12  per 
cent.,  as  a  free  gift  from  the  State,  was  handed  over  to 
the  Representative  Church  Body,  acting  for  the  Dis- 
established Church.  From  this  source  this  body  received 
a  capital  sum  of  £7,581,075,  representing  the  incomes  of 
the  2,043  clergymen  in  office  at  the  time  of  the 
Disestablishment.8  On  this  sum  the  Representative  Church 
Body  (having  paid  all  claimants),  has  realised  a  profit  of 
about  £3,500,000,9  or  about  £6  per  head  of  the 
Episcopalian  population.  It  owes  this  result  to  the 
supplementary  bonus,  to  good  financial  administration, 

in  times  of  famine  and  for  paying  off  arrears  of  rent,  received 
£2,750,000.  (Acts  of  1869,  1878,  1879,  1880,  1881,  1882,  1891,  1899, 
See  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Irish  Land  Commission).  Irishmen 
complain  that  the  Church  Fund  has  been  saddled  with  expenses  (for 
education,  etc.)  which  should  have  been  met  by  the  Imperial  Treasury 
(the  Church  Fund  being  reserved  by  law  for  the  relief  of  national 
distress).  Although  not  entirely  spent,  the  Church  Fund  is  now 
exhausted  as  regards  its  application  to  any  further  purpose. 

8  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  were  2,282  clergymen  in  office.  It  is  even 
said  that  diiring  the  years  which  preceded  tne  Disestablishment  the 
number  of  curates  was  inci eased  in  older  to  increase  tne  claims  for 
compensation.  A  small  number  of  these  clergymen  profited  by  the 
provision  in  the  Act  which  made  commutation  optional.  They  insisted 
that  their  incomes  should  be  paid  them  regularly  by  the  State. 

9  These  are  the  figures  given  by  a  Protestant,  Mr.  Houston,  Q.C., 
in  an  article  in  the  Contemporary  Review  of  May  1st,  1894  (the  author 
makes  it£4,ooo,ooo,but  this  includes  the£500,ooo  representing  donations 
and  legacies  before  1870).  Of  this  £3, 500,000,  the  bonus  of  12  per  cent, 
furnished  by  the  Treasury  accounts  for  £812,258,  various  other 
transactions  brought  in  £1,648,809;  the  remainder  is  drawn  from 
profits  arising  from  the  financial  administration  of  the  £7,581,075 
handed  over  to  the  Representative  Church  Body  in  1871  (the  Act 
capitalised  the  vested  rights  by  taking  as  a  basis  an  annual  rate  of 
interest  of  3J  per  cent.  Moreover,  for  a  considerable  time  the 
Representative  Church  Body  obtained  on  an  average  4  per  cent,  per 
annum  for  its  money).  The  Representative  Church  Body  capitalised 
a  proportion  of  the  profit  realised  on  the  Disestablishment,  but  the 
amount  of  this  capitalised  sum  does  not  appear  in  its  annual  accounts. 
The  surplus  has  been  handed  over  each  year  to  diocesan  or  other  funds, 
so  that  all  or  a  part  of  the  voluntary  contributions  to  the  Church 
could  be  rendered  available  or  capitalised  during  this  time.  In  the 
Report  of  the  Representative  Church  Body  for  1904,  the  Disestablished 
Church  is  said  to  have  a  capital  of  £8,414,138.  The  sum  total  of 
voluntary  contributions,  donations,  and  legacies  given  to  the  Church 
by  its  members  since  1870  amounted  in  the  same  year  to  £5,941,547. 
Taking  the  average  number  of  Irish  Episcopalians  to  be  600,000,  this 
sum  would  represent  an  average  annual  contribution,  during  34  years, 
of  five  shillings  and  ninepence  per  head.      (See  the  Annual  Reports  of 


472  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

to  a  system  of  composition,  and,  above  all,  to  the  large 
sum  obtained  by  capitalisation.10  This  £3,500,000  does 
not  include  the  £500,000  representing  the  donations  and 
legacies  received  by  the  Church  of  Ireland  since  the  year 
1660,  the  year  in  which  the  Church  was  reconstituted 
after  the  Cromwellian  wars. 

Such  is  the  re-endowment  which  the  operation  of  the 
Act  of  Disestablishment  secured  to  the  Irish  Church. 
This  Church  has  now  a  secure  and  unassailable  capital, 
whereas  her  former  capital  of  £16,000,000,  the  result  of 
the  confiscations,  produced  but  a  small  income,  and  was 
incessantly  threatened  by  agrarian  strife,  and  by 
Nationalist  agitation. 

It  is  obvious,  then,  that  Disestablishment  has  not 
reduced  the  Irish  Church  to  poverty.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  has  consolidated  her  position.  She  is  no  longer  a 
privileged  and  tyrannical  institution.  Her  independence 
has  been  restored,  and  her  compromising  connection  with 
the  Government  and  the  "  Castle  "  has  been  broken  off. 
These  "  former  friends  "  were,  in  reality,  "  her  worst 
enemies,"  "  because  of  her  long  association  with  them  in 
their  system  of  persecution  and  confiscation.  For  this 
reason  it  is  often  said  by  her  own  dignitaries  that  the 
Irish  Church  gained  more  than  she  lost  by  the  Act  of 
1869.  According  to  pessimists  like  Lord  Cairns  and 
Archbishop  Magee,  Disestablishment  was  to  be  the  ruin 

the  Proceedings  of  the  Representative  Body  of  the  Church  of  Ireland, 
Dublin,  Hodges  and  Figgis).  I  may  add  that  the  official  heads  of  the 
Disestablished  Church  expressly  deny  that  any  re-endowment  has  arisen 
from  the  operation  of  the  Disestablishment  Act.  It  seems  difficult  to 
reconcile  this  denial  with  the  facts  of  the  case.  (See  moreover  the 
statements  made  before  the  General  Synod,  23rd  April,  1903,  by  Dr. 
Traill,  now  Provost  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin).  Dr.  Traill  is  an 
influential  member  of  the  Representative  Body.  According  to  him, 
Mr.  Gladstone  estimated  that  out  of  a  capital  of  ^16,000,000,  the 
working  of  the  Act  had  assured  to  the  Church  a  sum  of  £7, 000,000, 
plus  the  value  of  the  ecclesiastical  buildings.  (Cf.  Fortnightly  Review, 
March,  1901,  p.  460). 

10  The  stipends  paid  to  the  2,282  archbishops,  bishops,  incumbents 
and  curates  in  office  in  1870,  amounted  in  all  to  a  sum  of  ^589,665. 
(Report  of  the  Commissioners  of  Church  Temporalities  for  1869- 1880, 
Dublin,  1880,  p.  8). 

11  The  words  of  a  Protestant  author,  Ball,  op.  cit.,  p.  238. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  473 

of  the  Irish  Episcopalian  Church,  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  it  has  been  the  means  of  infusing  into  her  a  new 
life.  Her  laymen  have  been  brought  into  close  connection 
with  her  clergy,  and  they  are  taking  an  increasing  interest 
in  matters  connected  with  the  administration  of  their 
Church.  Hence  the  Low  Church  and  anti-Ritualistic 
tendencies  of  the  Irish  Church  in  doctrine  and  formularies 
have  become  accentuated  during  the  last  thirty  years,  by 
contrast  with  the  practices  of  the  Church  of  England. 
After  the  Restoration  of  1660,  indeed,  the  sister  Churches 
ceased  to  be  in  complete  harmony  with  each  other  as 
regards  the  nature  and  form  of  their  Protestantism.  That 
event  had  introduced  a  certain  amount  of  sacerdotalism 
into  the  Church  of  England,  whereas  the  Church  of 
Ireland  retained  the  stamp  of  Puritanism.  Nevertheless, 
after  1800,  joint  subjection  to  the  Parliament  and  to  the 
Crown  was  the  means  of  maintaining  a  certain  exterior 
uniformity  between  the  two  Churches,  although  evangelical 
tendencies  manifested  themselves  amongst  Irish  laymen 
in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Since  the 
Disestablishment,  while  ritualism  has  gained  ground  in 
England,  opposite  tendencies  have  become  accentuated 
in  Ireland,  both  in  consequence  of  the  liberty  enjoyed  by 
the  Disestablished  Church,  and  because  of  the  influence 
exercised  by  her  laymen.  The  Creed  and  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  have  been  revised  ;  the  more  moderate 
Episcopalians  have  found  it  difficult  to  restrain  the 
radicalism  of  the  reformers,  and  more  than  once  it  has 
seemed  as  if  secession  were  at  hand.  There  are  at  the 
present  time  some  "  suspected  "  parishes  (notably  in 
Dublin),  and  even  in  the  Divinity  School  of  Trinity 
College  there  are  evidences  that  ritualistic  and  rationalistic 
tendencies  exist  side  by  side.  Yet  Episcopalian  Ireland, 
on  the  whole,  is  aggressively  Low  Church,  and  more 
nearly  related  in  many  ways  to  Calvinism  than  to 
Anglicanism.  In  Ireland  the  laymen,  at  least,  are 
Protestant  and  nothing  more  ;  unlike  their  brethren  in 
England    they     are    careful    not     to     call     themselves 


474         POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

"  Catholic  "  into  the  bargain.  Opposition  always  provokes 
extremes,  and  Protestant  Ireland  is  especially  anti- 
ritualistic  on  account  of  the  close  proximity  of  Catholicism. 
"  They  had  got,"  said  the  late  Colonel  Saunderson,  not 
long  ago,  "  the  real  article  {i.e.,  Roman  Catholicism)  in 
Ireland,  and  they  would  not  have  a  sham  imitation  of  it." 
All  this  tends  to  loosen  the  natural  ties  whereby  the 
Church  of  Ireland  was  formerly  attached  to  the  Church 
of  England.  It  also  accentuates  her  isolation.  A  deep 
gulf  separates  her  alike  from  the  Catholic  majority,  from 
the  irreconcilable  Dissenters,  and  from  the  Church  of 
England.  Her  bishops  may  extol  the  "  Catholicity  "  of 
theii  Church,  and  call  her  the  historic  Church  of  Ireland. 
They  may  even  declare  that  she  is  fifteen  centuries  old 
and  is  the  only  direct  descendant  of  Saint  Patrick  and 
the  first  apostles,  but  in  spite  of  all  this  her  members 
come  more  and  more  to  feel  her  particularist  tendencies. 
Imperialists  and  Unionists  in  politics,  they  are  Home 
Rulers  and  Nationalists  in  religious  matters,  and  their 
isolation  arises  from  their  very  independence.  In  the 
same  way,  each  unit,  whether  it  be  a  parish  or  a  diocese, 
has  a  tendency  to  become  isolated  and  to  forget  the 
interests  of  the  whole  community.  Episcopalianism  is 
tinged  with  Congregationalism,  and  the  unity  of  the 
Church  and  her  general  welfare  are  no  longer  of  supreme 
importance.  Moreover,  the  Church  of  Ireland,  the  Church 
of  the  rich  and  privileged  minority,  has  remained  unpro- 
gressive.  Canning  defined  the  Irish  Protestant  as  "a 
man  who  damns  the  Papists  and  never  goes  to  Church." 
This  definition  is  no  longer  strictly  accurate,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  that  the  religious  zeal  of  the  laity  is 
lukewarm,  and  that  political  interest  and  the  Ascendancy 
spirit  are  blended  with  the  faith  of  this  Anglican  caste. 
Again,  the  social  condition  of  the  landlords  is  undergoing 
a  great  change,  and  they  are  the  mainstay  of  the  Church, 
and  almost  the  only  subscribers  to  its  funds.  Their 
incomes  have  been  reduced  by  agrarian  agitation,  and  by 
successive  Land  Acts.      Many  of  them  will  undoubtedly 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  475 

leave  the  country,  taking  with  them  their  families  and 
entourage,  as  soon  as  they  have  sold  their  property  to 
the  tenants  under  the  Land  Purchase  Act.  Every  day 
there  will  be  fewer  Protestants  in  the  country  parts  of 
Ireland.  At  the  present  time  the  number  of  parishes 
and  dioceses  is  in  excess  of  the  needs  of  the  diminishing 
congregations.  Will  it  be  possible  to  amalgamate 
dioceses  and  parishes  without  creating  districts  the  extent 
of  which  will  render  efficient  administration  impossible  ? 
On  the  other  hand,  will  the  Church  be  prepared  to  give 
up  that  parochial  organisation  to  which,  for  political  and 
social  reasons,  she  has  always  been  so  deeply  attached  ? 
Except  in  Ulster  and  in  the  towns,  it  cannot  be  an  easy 
task  in  the  future  to  keep  up  a  Church  which  seems  fated 
by  force  of  circumstances  to  watch  the  gradual  dis- 
appearance of  her  flock. 

Can  she,  on  the  other  hand,  hope  to  gain  adherents 
amongst  the  Catholics  ?  Officially,  the  Church  of  Ireland 
no  longer  undertakes  the  work  of  preaching  to  the  Papists. 
She  leaves  that  to  certain  proselytising  Societies,  which 
are  under  the  patronage  of  some  of  her  highest  dignitaries. 
The  majority  of  these  Societies  were  founded  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  They  soon  organised 
a  vast  relief  system  for  the  purpose  of  buying  conversions. 
With  this  object  they  distributed  large  quantities  of 
clothing  and  soup  ;  hence  the  expressions,  "  souperism  " 
and  "  soupers."  The  system  was  an  exploitation  of 
misery  and  want.  It  never  appeared  more  odious  than 
at  the  period  of  the  Great  Famine  of  1847,  when  the 
people  of  the  West  died  by  thousands  on  the  roadside, 
rather  than  accept  the  help  offered  as  the  price  of  their 
apostacy.  At  the  present  day  only  three  or  four  of  these 
Societies  show  any  vitality  ; I2    they  work  in  the  poorest 

12  Setting  aside  the  Educational  Societies,  I  may  mention  the 
Hibernian  Bible  Society  (founded  1806).  This  Society  is  engaged  in 
selling  and  distributing  Bibles.  (In  its  Report  for  1901-1902,  it  states 
that  in  96  years  it  has  placed  in  circulation  5,528,683  Bibles,  that  is 
57,000  per  year,  or  184  per  day  :  its  annual  income  in  1901-1902  was 
£2J73)-        The  Irish  Society  was  founded  in  18 18,  for  the  purpose  of 


476  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

quarters  of  the  large  towns,  and  in  the  poorest  parts  of 
the  country.  Open-air  preaching,  controversial  meetings, 
Bible  lectures  at  fairs  and  in  market-places  with  magic 
lanterns  to  attract  the  crowd,  alluring  posters,  visits 
from  missionary  agents  who  tour  the  country,  and  are 
occasionally  attacked  by  an  angry  crowd — all  these  things 
have  produced  little  or  no  effect.  Children,  however, 
cannot  protect  themselves,  and  it  is  to  the  children  that 
these  evangelizing  societies  principally  direct  their 
attention.  They  pick  them  up  and  buy  them,  either 
materially  or  morally,  in  order  to  educate  them  in 
Protestant  schools,  or  to  bring  them  up  in  special 
"  Homes,"  which  are  adorned  with  the  charming  name 
of  "  Birds'  Nests."  This  culpable  traffic  in  the  souls  of 
children  still  flourishes  in  Dublin  ;  in  fact,  a  Catholic 
institution  known  as  the  Sacred  Heart  Home  has  been 
founded  to  counteract  its  proselytising  influences.  All 
liberal-minded  Protestants  stigmatise  the  system  as 
scandalous  and  degrading.  As  yet,  however,  no  one  of 
authority  in  the  Episcopalian  world  has  stepped  forward 
to  condemn  those  corrupt  practices,  which  only  serve  to 
irritate  the  Catholics,  and  to  foster  a  spirit  of  religious 
strife.  Surely  the  Church  of  Ireland  loses  more  than  she 
gains  through  the  work  of  the  propagandist  societies,  the 
Birds'  Nests  and  the  Scripture  Readers.  The  conversion 
of  a  few  children  will  not  fortify  Protestantism  against 
the  dangers  which  the  future  has  in  store  for  it.  Ireland 
has  become  "  Anglicised  "during  the  nineteenth  century. 
She  has  not,  however,  become  "  Anglicanised,"  and  the 
official  dethronement  of  Irish  Episcopalianism  has  as  its 
counterpart  the  expansion  of  Irish  Catholicism  during  the 
last  hundred  years. 

converting  the  Irish  through  the  medium  of  their  native  language. 
(Receipts  for  1901-1902,  £4,285).  The  Scripture  Readers'  Society  was 
founded  in  1862,  and  The  Society  for  Irish  Church  Missions  in  1849; 
in  1 90 1  the  receipts  of  the  latter  society  amounted  to  £15,528.  The 
incomes  of  these  societies  are  largely  drawn  from  England. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  477 


III. — Catholicism. 

When  Irish  Catholicism  first  emerged  from  the  influence 
of  the  Penal  Laws,  all  its  energies  seemed  paralysed.  Its 
churches  had  been  seized  or  destroyed  by  the  Protestants, 
and  Mass  was  said  in  "  chapels."  These  chapels  had 
neither  crosses,  nor  bells  nor  steeples,  and  were  either 
hovels  hidden  in  the  back  streets  of  the  towns,  out  of 
sight  of  the  intolerant  Protestant  "  Garrison,"  or  mud 
cabins  with  earthen  floors  in  the  country.  In  either  case 
they  were  too  small  to  contain  the  worshippers,  of  whom 
three-quarters  were  forced  to  kneel  outside  the  doors.  In 
many  villages  Mass  was  said  in  the  open  market-place. 
One  day  during  Mass  the  roof  of  the  chapel  at  Callan 
gave  way  and  was  held  up  on  the  shoulders  of  the  men 
in  the  congregation  until  the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony. 
Until  the  year  18 10,  the  offices  of  the  Church  were 
celebrated  at  Athy  in  a  shop  near  the  banks  of  the  river. 
Until  well  into  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  only  one 
Catholic  "  chapel  "  in  Belfast.  The  clergy  were  all 
educated  on  the  Continent  at  the  Colleges  of  Louvain, 
Paris,  Douai,  or  Salamanca,  where  they  imbibed  the 
traditional  spirit  of  passive  obedience  to  established  laws 
and  authorities.  Loyalists  and  Conservatives,  they  were 
unshaken  by  persecution,  but  suffered  in  silence  for  fear 
of  provoking  new  tyrannies.  They  hated  the  French 
Revolution,  and  fought  energetically  against  the  insurrec- 
tion of  the  United  Irishmen  in  1798. 

At  the  present  day  the  contrast  is  very  great,  and  it 
would  be  difficult  to  describe  the  impression  of  independent 
and  vigorous  strength  which  the  outward  manifestations 
of  Irish  Catholicism  leave  on  the  casual  visitor.  Out  of 
2,418  churches  there  is  probably  not  one  which  was  not 
built  during  the  last  century.  Everywhere  one  meets 
with  splendid  cathedrals,  built  unfortunately  with  rather 
bad  taste  in  the  Italian  or  "  Munichois  "  style.  One 
might  be  inclined  to  think  that  these  cathedrals  are  too 


478  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

large,  and  that  their  wealth  is  out  of  proportion  to  the 
misery  of  the  country  ;  but  it  should  be  remembered 
that  thejr  are  the  only  luxuries  which  Ireland  allows  her- 
self, and  are  glorious  witnesses  to  the  piety  of  her  people. 
The  Marlborough  Street  Pro-Cathedral,  in  Dublin,  was 
erected  in  1825,  not  far  from  the  celebrated  Gothic 
Cathedrals,  St.  Patrick's  and  Christ  Church,  which  have 
remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Protestants.  In  every 
village  one  finds  a  Catholic  "  chapel,"  white  and  gracious, 
close  by  that  other  church,  the  church  of  the  landlord, 
where  the  ancestors  of  the  villagers  worshipped  before 
the  Reformation.  This  latter  stands  barred,  mute,  and 
frigid,  whilst  the  Angelus  chimes  disci  eetly  from  the 
adjoining  belfry. 

There  are  in  Ireland  588  priests  belonging  to  the  regular 
clergy1 — Dominicans,  Lazarists,  Augustines,  Jesuits, 
Capuchins,  Redemptorists,  Fathers  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  others — not  counting  the  Brothers  of  St.  Patrick,  the 
Presentation  Brothers,  and,  that  noble  order,  the  Christian 
Brothers,  all  of  whom  devote  themselves  to  teaching.2 
The  secular  clergy  who  serve  the  1,099  parishes  of 
Ireland  consist  of  1,021  parish  priests  and  1,932  curates, 
administrators,3  and  others.  They  are  under  the  authority 

1  Irish  Catholic  Directory  for   1903.      Ireland  has  212  monasteries, 
86  for  priests  and  126  for  monks,  in  addition  to  37*,  convents. 

2  See  earlier  chapter  on  Education. 

3  This  is  the  title  given  to  the  priest  charged  with  the  management 
of  a  parish  of  which  the  Bishop  is  parish  priest.  Like  the  other  curates, 
the  administrators  are  removable.  The  parish  priests  are  permanent. 
The  Bishop  has  full  authority  to  nominate  the  parish  priests,  curates 
and  administrators.  Irish  ecclesiastical  property  (sucn  as  churches, 
schools,  presbyteries,  etc.)  is  administered  in  the  following  way  : — In 
every  diocese  it  is  vested  in  the  name  of  four  or  five  trustees,  including 
the  Bishop,  the  Vicar-General,  and  sometimes,  thougo  rarely,  a  layman. 
On  the  death  of  a  trustee,  the  survivors  elect  a  new  member.  Formerly 
there  were  parochial  trustees  as  in  America,  but  the  inclination  now 
is  to  have  only  diocesan  trustees.  There  are  no  "associations  cultuelles," 
and  no  vestry-boards  ;  the  parish  priest  is  responsible  only  to  his 
bishop  for  the  management  of  the  temporal  affairs  of  his  parish.  When, 
owing  to  the  building  of  a  church  or  a  school,  there  are  heavy  expenses 
in  prospect,  the  priest  forms  a  committee  composed  of  an  equal  number 
of  laymen  and  of  ecclesiastics  to  collect  the  money  and  to  consider 
the  plans.  When  the  expenses  have  been  met,  the  a<  counts  are  usually 
published.  (See  an  interesting  article  on  this  subject  by  Mgr.  Boyle, 
in  the  Correspondant,  November  10th,  1905). 


THE    RELIGIOUS   QUESTION  479 

of  twenty-three  Bishops  and  four  Archbishops  of  the 
Province  of  Ireland.  4  This  ecclesiastical  army  has  as 
its  centre  the  celebrated  Seminary  of  Maynooth,5 
picturesquely  situated  a  few  miles  from  Dublin,  in  County 
Kildare,  on  what  was  formerly  the  property  of  the  Duke 
of  Leinster.  Within  its  walls  still  stands  the  Protestant 
chapel  belonging  to  the  estate,  open  every  Sunday  for 
Protestant  service. 

But  for  the  rather  frigid  regularity  of  its  great  buildings, 
which  still  look  very  new,  and  the  somewhat  affected 
magnificence  of  the  Chapel  of  St.  Patrick  which  stands 
beside  the  College  cloisters,  Maynooth,  with  its  park,  its 
fields,  its  river,  and,  in  a  sense,  its  student  life  with 
outdoor  recreation  such  as  riding  and  games,  resembles 
a  great  English  University.  It  is  the  largest  Seminary  in 
the  Christian  world,  giving  education,  as  it  does,  to  about 
600  young  men  intended  for  Holy  Orders. 5  The  majority 
of  these  will  "  serve  "  in  Ireland  ;  the  remainder,  with 
priests  specially  trained  at  All  Hallows  College  for  foreign 
missions,  will  be  sent  either  to  the  New  World  or  to  the 
Antipodes.  As  the  mission  of  early  Ireland  was  to  teach 
the  European  continent  the  faith  of  nations,  so  the  mission 
of  modern  Ireland  seems  to  have  been  that  of 
establishing  Catholicism  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  communities 
beyond  the  seas.  It  was  Ireland  that,  during  the 
nineteenth  century,  gave  Australia  all  her  clergy,  including 
the  eminent  Archbishop  of  Sydney,  Cardinal  Moran. 
Ireland  watched  over  the  infancy  of  Catholicism  in  the 

4  The  Irish  Bishops  are  chosen  as  follows  : — A  presentation  list 
containing  three  names  (dignns,  dignior,  dignissimus),  is  drawn  up  by 
the  assembled  parish  priests  of  the  diocese  and  members  of  the  Chapter. 
The  Bishops  of  the,  province,  summoned  by  order  of  the  Metropolitan, 
make  what  comments  they  wish  upon  this  list,  which  is  afterwards 
forwarded  to  Rome.  The  Pope,  of  course,  need  not  necessarily  choose 
the  new  Bishop  from  amongst  the  names  mentioned  on  the  hst,  but, 
as  a  matter  of  fact  he  almost  invariably  does  so,  and  he  usually  selects 
the  dignissimus. 

5  About  80  priests  are  ordained  per  year  at  Maynooth  ;  70  per 
cent,  of  the  Irish  secular  clergy  come  from  Maynootti,  and  the 
îemainder  from  the  Irish  Colleges  in  Paris  or  Rome,  and  from  the 
diocesan  seminaries  in  Carlow,  Thurles,  Wexford,  or  Waterford.  (Cf. 
Royal  Commission  on  University  Education  in  Ireland,  Appendix  III. 
p.  284.     Maynooth  College,  its  Centenary  History). 


48o  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

United  States,  and  still  provides  the  whole  of  Western 
America  with  priests.  In  America  to-day  the  dignitaries 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  from  Cardinal  Gibbons  to  Dr. 
Ireland,  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Paul's,  are  almost 
exclusively  Irish.  Ireland  is  a  nation  of  missionaries, 
and  has  well  deserved  the  title  of  "  Mother  of  all  the 
Catholic  Churches  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  world."  The  great 
office  of  the  Apostle,  Peregrinari  pro  Christo,  has  been  as 
nobly  filled  by  her  priests  in  the  nineteenth  as  fry  her 
monks  in  the  seventh  century. 

Always  a  faithful  servant  of  the  Holy  See,  Ireland 
herself,  at  the  present  day,  enjoys  the  largest  tolerance 
in  the  exercise  of  the  Catholic  religion,  and  this  under  a 
Protestant  and  an  English  government.  The  endowment 
of  Maynooth6  is  the  only  subsidy  granted  by  the  State  to 
Irish  Catholicism.  The  priest  lives  on  the  contributions 
which  he  receives  from  his  parishioners  at  Christmas  and 
Easter, 7  and  on  fees  for  Masses  and  ceremonies  ;  and, 
considering  the  poverty  of  his  surroundings,  he  is 
generously  paid.  He  cannot  be  elected  to  any  political 
assembly,  nor  to  any  public  office,  and  is  forbidden  by 
law  to  wear  his  soutane  in  public,  an  interdiction  which 
may,  indeed,  have  the  advantage  of  bringing  priest  and 


6  In  1869  Maynooth  received  the  sum  of  £372,331,  representing 
fourteen  years  purchase  of  trie  annual  grant  which  had  formerly  been 
allotted  to  her.  The  interest  on  this  sum  represents  only  a  third  part 
of  the  annual  expenses  of  Maynooth.  (Royal  Commission  on 
University  Education  in  Ireland,  Appendix  III.,  p.  285). 

7  It  is  rather  difficult  to  ascertain  the  annual  totals  of  the  parochial 
contributions.  Some  years  ago,  Dr.  O'Donnell,  the  Bishop  of  Raphoe, 
computed  that  they  averaged  between  six  and  seven  shillings  per 
family  in  the  poor  districts  of  the  West.  (This  included  contributions 
for  the  erection  and  maintenance  of  churches  ;  see  Financial  Relations 
Commission,  Evidence  I '.,17  )•  A  proportion  of  the  annual  contributions 
is  given  by  the  parish  priest  to  his  curates  ;  moreover,  each  priest 
gives  an  annual  contribution  (cathedraticum)  to  the  Bishop  of  the 
diocese.  The  latter  also  enjoys  the  revenues  of  two  parishes  of  which 
he  is  officially  parish  priest,  and  which  are  managed  for  him  by  an 
administrator.  In  1862,  Mgr.  Perraud  estimated  that  the  average 
stipend  paid  annually  to  an  Irish  parish  priest  was  £200,  to  a  curate 
£80,  and  to  a  Bishop  £500.  Mgr.  Boyle  estimates  that  the  average 
revenues  of  the  Irish  clergy  are  as  follows  : — Bishops,  £600  to  £1,000  ; 
parish  priests,  £200  to  £400;  curates,  £80  to  £200.  (Correspondant, 
November  10th,  1905). 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  481 

people  closer  together.8  In  every  other  respect  he  is  his 
own  master.  The  Catholic  religion  in  Ireland  is  not 
interfered  with  either  by  legal  restrictions  or  by  police 
regulations  ;  and  in  no  country  does  the  secular  arm 
show  more  respect  for  religion  and  its  ministers.  This 
is  a  most  striking  example  of  tolerance  towards  a 
conquered  counrty,  and  the  lesson  which  it  teaches  should 
not  be  forgotten  by  other  nations,  and  in  particular  by 
France. 

IV. — The  Nineteenth  Century. 

For  over  a  hundred  years  the  Irish  priest  has  taken  a 
prominent  part  in  politics.  He  is  to  be  found  at  all  the 
elections,  whilst  at  almost  every  popular  meeting  the 
local  parish  priest  is  to  be  seen  on  the  platform,  the 
clergy  being,  of  course,  in  the  great  majority,  Nationalist. 

They     became    Nationalists    in    the    course     of    the 
nineteenth  century;  as  the  priests  educated  under  the 
ancien  régime  gave  place  to  new  men  from  Maynooth, 
they   gradually   became    Nationalists.        Maynooth   was 
founded  in  1795,  in  consequence  of  an  Act  of  Parliament 
which  authorised  the  allocation  of  an  annual  grant1  for 
the  establishment  of  a  Catholic  "Academy."     The  Irish 
Bishops  had  intended  that  the  Academy  should  be  both 
an   ecclesiastical   Seminary   and   a   lay   College,    and   in 
some  respects  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  dual  system 
had  to  be  abandoned  owing  to  want  of  funds.2     It  was 
hoped  that  the  Irish  clergy  would  be  conciliated  by  the 
offer    of    education    at    home    at    the    expense    of    the 
Government.     The  Government  expected,  too,  that  this 
new  system  would  preserve  the  clergy  from  those  advanced 
ideas  which  at  that  time  prevailed  over  a  portion  of  the 

8  I  may  add  that  the  Emancipation  Act  of  1829  maintained  the 
prosciiption  of  the  religious  orders.  Though  this  provision  has  fallen 
into  desuetude,  it  has  never  been  repealed,  and  judges  are  sometimes 
obliged  to  annul  gifts  and  legacies  to  religious  communities. 

1  Originally  £8,000,  gradually  raised  to  £26,360  and  converted^in 
1869  to  a  capital  sum. 

2  The  Lay  College  came  to  an  end  in  18 17. 

2  I 


482  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

Continent.  These  anticipations  proved  false.  The  majority 
of  the  Bishops  were  men  of  the  Pale,  anxious  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  the  Castle.  The  hatred  which  they 
bore  towards  the  Protestant  Ascendancy  in  Ireland  made 
them  favour  the  Union  with  England  ;  in  fact  one  of  the 
principal  authors  of  this  Union  was  Dr.  Troy,  the 
Archbishop  of  Dublin.  The  new  generation,  on  the 
other  hand,  drank  in  a  fervent  spirit  of  nationality  at 
Maynooth.  These  young  priests  were  sons  of  peasants. 
As  children  they  had  seen  their  parents  oppressed  and 
sometimes  evicted  by  the  landlord,  obliged  to  pay  tithes 
to  the  parson,  and  excluded  as  Catholics  from  voting  and 
from  all  public  offices.  During  a  long  residence  abroad 
the  clergy  educated  under  the  old  system  had  forgotten 
these  lessons,  but  the  men  of  the  new  generation  never 
lost  touch  with  the  land  of  their  birth,  and  were  therefore 
easily  influenced  by  the  progress  of  patriotic  ideas.  The 
echo  of  the  social  and  political  awakening  of  Ireland  was 
heard  as  clearly  at  Maynooth  as  anywhere  in  Ireland. 

This  fact  was  particularly  obvious  on  the  occasion  of 
the  famous  Concordat  affair.  Anxious  to  have  some 
hold  over  the  clergy,  England  wished  Rome  to  allow  her 
a  veto  in  the  nomination  of  Bishops.  In  exchange  for 
this  privilege  she  proposed  that  the  State  should  pay  the 
priests.  When  this  plan  was  laid  before  the  Bishops  in 
1799,  many  of  these  latter  expressed  themselves  unofficially 
in  favour  of  it,  and  a  garbled  version  of  their  statements 
was  laid  before  Parliament  in  1808. 3  Thereupon  a  storm 
of  indignation  arose  in  Ireland.  The  Irish  people  declared 
that  they  would  rather  forego  Catholic  Emancipation 
than  receive  it  in  exchange  for  a  Veto  which  would 
convert  the  Bishops  into  agents  of  the  Government.   The 

3  Ponsonby,  referring  to  the  statement  made  by  the  episcopal  trustees 
of  Maynooth,  alleged  that  the  Irish  Catholics  would  allow  the  King 
of  England  to  become  the  spiritual  director  of  their  Church.  In  two 
books,  Corrispondenza  inédite  dei  Cardinali  Consaloi  e  Pasca  (Turin, 
1903),  ;  nd  II  Congresso  di  Vienna  e  la  Santa  Sede  (Rome,  1904),  P. 
Ilario  Rinieri  gives  some  interesting  details  as  to  the  Anglo-Roman 
negotiations  on  the  subject  of  the  Veto. 


THE    RELIGIOUS    QUESTION  483 

Bishops  yielded,  and  published  an  official  refusal  of  the 
offer.4  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  this  offer  will  not  be 
accepted  on  any  future  occasion.  Nevertheless,  the  Holy 
See  was  not  unfavourable  to  the  plan.  In  181 2  Monsignor 
Quarantotti  pressed  the  Irish  people  to  accept  it,  and 
Pope  Pius  VII.  was  of  the  same  mind.  Ireland  protested 
respectfully  but  firmly.  The  Bishops  sent  memorials 
and  deputations  to  Rome  for  the  purpose  of  making 
representations  to  the  Pope  as  to  the  consequences  of 
the  measure.  Dr.  Doyle  was  asked  before  a  Commission 
of  Enquiry  what  he  would  do  if  the  Veto  were  granted. 
"  I  would  protest  ;  I  would  protest  a  second  time  ;  and 
if  that  were  not  sufficient,  I  would  resign  my  Bishop's 
ring,  and  there  is  not  a  Bishop  in  Ireland  who  would 
not  do  the  same."  Matters,  however,  did  not  come  to 
such  a  pass.  After  Waterloo  England  let  the  question 
drop,  and  nothing  more  was  heard  of  it. 5  Nevertheless, 
the  whole  affair  had  afforded  a  curious  instance  of 
religious  intransigeance  and  political  capacity  on  the  part 
of  the  Irish  people.  They  had  shown  themselves  stricter 
than  their  Bishops,  and  more  "  papistical  "  than  the 
Pope.  They  were  not  Gallican,  for  they  only  upheld  the 
liberties  of  their  Church  against  the  civil  powers  ;  nor 
Ultramontane,  for  they  placed  themselves  in  successful 
opposition  to  the  wishes  of  Rome.  They  showed 
themselves  capable  of  combining  the  respect  due  to  the 
spiritual  authority  of  the  Papacy,  with  that  degree  of 
independence  which  is  permitted  with  regard  to  temporal 
affairs. 

In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  two  men 
in  particular  stood  out  as  embodiments  of  the  new  spirit 
which  had  arisen  amongst  the  clergy.  They  were  Dr. 
MacHale  (1791-1881),  Bishop  of  Killala,  and  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Tuam,  and  Dr.  Doyle  (1786-1834),  Bishop 

4  The  Catholic  aristocracy  of  Ireland,  in  alliance  with  the  English 
Catholics,  differed  from  the  Irish  popular  party  upon  this  question. 
O'Connell,  who  opposed  the  Veto,  soon  took  command  of  the  popular 
party. 

5  It  reappeared  in  1821  and    1825,  but  with  no  chance  of  success. 


484  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

of  Kildare  and  Leighlin.  In  an  age  when  the  "  Castle 
Prelates  "  were  still  powerful,  and  when  public  opinion 
was  paralysed,  these  ardent  patriots  exerted  themselves 
to  raise  the  courage  of  their  followers,  and  to  help  forward 
the  constitutional  struggle.  At  the  same  time  they 
utterly  discountenanced  the  crimes  of  the  Ribbonmen. 
In  his  Letters  from  Hieropolis  (1820)  MacHale  claimed 
religious  equality,  and  carried  the  war  into  the  enemy's 
camp  by  attacking  the  Established  Church  and  Protestant 
proselytism.  Two  years  later,  over  the  celebrated  initials 
of  J.  K.  L.,6  Doyle  wrote  a  series  of  powerful  and 
brilliant  letters  in  reply  to  an  attack  made  by  the 
Protestant  Archbishop  Magee.  The  effect  of  these  letters 
was  enormous.  Since  the  days  of  Swift  and  the  Drapier 
Letters  no  pamphlet  had  made  such  an  impression. 
Copies  of  them  were  posted  up  on  the  walls  ;  on  Sundays 
after  Vespers  they  were  read  aloud  to  the  assembled 
peasants.  When  O'Connell  had  finished  one  of  MacHale's 
letters  he  cried  :  "  Here,  at  least,  is  one  able  man,  on 
whom  I  can  rely,  and  there  is  also  J.  K.  L.,  quite  as 
logical,  as  eloquent,  as  courageous.  With  their  help 
I  can  fight  and  win."  Under  the  direction  of 
O'Connell  and  of  these  two  prelates,  the  clergy  entered 
the  political  arena  in  1823.  They  took  part  in  the 
campaign  in  favour  of  Emancipation,  and  fought  for 
the  abolition  of  tithes.  They  were  also  engaged  in  the 
unsuccessful  struggle  for  Repeal,  and,  faithful  to  O'Connell, 
they  opposed  the  "  Young  Ireland  "  movement,  which 
was  nevertheless  countenanced  by  some  of  the  younger 
priests. 7  They  stifled  the  insurrection  of  1848  in  its 
birth,  and  recalled  the  people  from  the  edge  of  the  abyss 
of  revolution. 

Ardent  politicians  as  they  were,  these  ecclesiastics  of 
the  new  school  were  uncompromising  in  religious  matters. 
From  1831  to  1850  they  opposed  the  clergy  of  the  ancien 

6  James,  Kildare  and  Leighlin. 

7  Especially  by  those  at  Maynooth.  (Cf.  Maynooth  College,  its 
Centenary  History,  p.  450). 


THE    RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  485 

régime  over  the  education  question.  Their  principal 
adversary  in  this  matter  was  the  old  Archbishop  of 
Dublin,  Dr.  Murray  (1768-1852).  As  I  have  already 
said,  the  system  of  primary  education  was  that  organised 
in  1 831  by  Stanley  (Lord  Derby).  The  principle 
underlying  this  system  was  that  of  united  secular,  and 
separate  religious  instruction.  Was  this  so-called 
"  national  "  system  to  be  accepted  ?  It  was  favoured  by 
Dr.  Murray  and  by  the  majority  of  the  Bishops,  but  was 
vigorously  opposed  by  Dr.  MacHale,  who  was,  as  ever, 
ready  for  the  struggle.  He  pointed  out  that  the  new 
law  was  in  reality  a  new  effort  on  the  part  of  the  official 
or  officious  Protestant  proselytisers.  Not  content  with 
maintaining  expensive  schools  throughout  the  country, 
they  had  been  gradually  extending  the  sphere  of  their 
propagandist  societies,  under  the  pretence  of  doing 
charitable  work.  The  fears  expressed  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Tnam  were  not  without  foundation.  For  a  period  of 
twenty  years  the  so-called  "  national  "  system,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Protestant  Archbishop  Whately,  was 
indeed  aimed  at  the  "  conversion  "  of  Ireland.8 

The  Education  Act  was  finally  accepted  in  Ireland,  and 
tacitly  approved  by  Rome.  9  All  this,  however,  did  not 
prevent  the  schools  from  being  in  practice  organised  ac- 
cording to  the  different  creeds,  that  is  to  say,  in  direct  con- 
travention of  the  Act.  Archbishop  MacHale,  moreover, 
was  to  have  his  revenge.  The  same  question  arose  in 
1845,  when  Sir  Robert  Peel  instituted  the  three  Queen's 
Colleges  on  a  purely  secular  basis,  to  the  exclusion  of 

8  Life  of  Dr.  Whately,  p.  244.  "  The  Education  supplied  by  the 
National  Board,"  wrote  Dr.  Whately,  "is  gradually  undermining  the 
vast  fabric  of  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  Church." 

Cf.  p.  246.  "  I  believe  that  mixed  education  is  gradually  enlightening 
the  mass  of  the  people,  and  that  if  we  give  it  up,  we  (the  Protestants) 
give  up  the  only  hope  of  weaning  the  Irish  people  frc  m  the  abuses  of 
Popery.  But  I  cannot  venture  openly  to  profess  this  opinion.  I 
cannot  openly  support  the  Board  of  Education  as  an  instrument  of 
conversion.  I  have  to  fight  its  battles  with  one  hand,  and  that  my 
best,  tied  behind  me.  '     Cf.  Perraud,  IL,  pp.  319-412. 

9  With  the  ueservation  (imposed  by  the  Synod  of  Thurles  in  1850), 
that  all  the  school  books  should  be  approved  by  the  Bishop. 


486         POSSIBILITIES    OF   REGENERATION 

any  religious  element.  Should  such  establishments  be 
authorised  ?  Dr.  Murray  thought  that  after  certain 
precautions  had  been  taken  they  should  have  a  fair 
trial.  Dr.  MacHale  was  entirely  against  them.  Amongst 
the  laymen  the  difference  of  opinion  was  no  less  marked. 
O'Connell  was  irreconcilable,  whereas  "  Young  Ireland," 
impregnated  with  ideas  of  toleration  and  union,  found 
itself  by  a  curious  irony  of  events  in  alliance  with  the 
old  loyalist  prelate,  who  was  ever  a  persona  grata  with 
the  Castle.  This  time  Rome  declared  against  the  Queen's 
Colleges,  and  they  were  condemned  by  the  Synod  of 
Thurles  in  1850  as  "  dangerous  to  faith  and  morals." 
The  result  was  the  triumph  of  the  extreme  Catholics, 
not  on  account  of  Ultramontane  ideas  or  pressure  from 
Rome,  but  because  it  was  necessary  to  protect  Catholic 
youth  from  the  dangers  of  proselytism. 

The  boycotting  of  the  Queen's  Colleges  is,  perhaps,  to 
be  regretted  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  social 
development  of  Ireland  ;  had  they  been  supported,  the 
education  of  the  present  day  might  have  been  better, 
and  the  spirit  of  religious  warfare  less  widespread.  The 
real  fault,  however,  lies  with  England  and  her  represen- 
tatives, and  is  due  to  their  endeavours  to  "  convert  " 
Ireland.  A  lay-  friend  of  mine  once  summarised  the 
situation  thus  :  "  If  we  lived  in  Spain  we  would  be 
tolerant,  but  in  this  country  tolerance  is  too  expensive 
a  luxury." 

Moreover,  Liberalism  was  not  popular  in  the  fifties.  In 
Ireland  as  elsewhere  there  was  a  reaction  against  the 
revolutionary  tendencies  of  1848.  The  Irish  clergy  were 
at  this  time  under  the  influence  of  a  venerable  prelate, 
who,  after  a  long  residence  in  Rome,  had  returned  to 
Ireland  with  Ultramontane  principles  and  a  horror  of  all 
popular  movements.  Dr.  Cullen  (1800-1877)  was 
Archbishop  successively  of  Armagh  and  of  Dublin,  and 
was  also  the  first  Irish  Cardinal.  He  refused  to  allow 
his  priests  to  take  any  part  in  agrarian  or  political 
affairs,  and  in  elections  he  only  permitted  them  to  intervene 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  487 

in  favour  of  the  Whig  friends  of  the  Government.10  The 
times  were  unpropitious  for  Ireland  and  for  her  clergy. 

It  was  only  in  1880  that  these  latter  returned  to  the 
ranks  of  the  Nationalist  army,  summoned  thither  by  the 
voice  of  a  new  MacHale,  Dr.  Croke  (1842-1902),  formerly 
a  pupil  of  the  Irish  College  at  Paris,  and  a  Young 
Irelander  in  his  youth.  Dr.  Croke  remained  an  ardent 
patriot,  and  was  the  true  leader  of  the  clergy  during  the 
crisis  of  1880-1890.  He  was  the  popular  idol  of  the 
nation  to  as  great  an  extent  as  either  Parnell  or  Davitt. 
He  was  the  first  of  his  order  to  become  an  acknowledged 
member  of  the  Land  League,  and  his  example  was 
followed  by  numbers  of  the  parochial  clergy.  It  was  felt 
that  this  great  Church  dignitary  was  assuming  a  heavy 
responsibility  in  allying  himself  openly  with  the  agitators. 
It  was  thought  that  the  movement  would  be  accompanied 
by  crimes,  and  that  this  fact  would  react  unfavourably 
upon  the  prestige  of  the  clergy.  On  the  other  hand, 
when  it  was  a  question  of  life  and  death  for  Ireland, 
were  the  clergy  justified  in  refusing  their  aid  to  a  nation 
which  had  suffered  so  much  and  so  long  for  the  Catholic 
faith  ?  If  the  priests  were  to  fail  the  Irish  people  in  the 
hour  of  danger,  would  they  not  lose  all  influence  over 
their  flocks  ?  Surely  it  would  be  better  for  them  to 
direct  the  movement  into  safe  channels  than  to  be  helpless 
witnesses  of  its  violence  ? 

In  this  great  crisis,  then,  the  priests  played  the  part 
of  patriots.  Although  their  speeches  were  sometimes 
exceedingly  violent,  they  usually  contented  themselves 
with  giving  counsel,  and  seldom  took  an  active  part  in 

i°  He  fought  the  survivors  of  the  Repeal  Movement,  G.  H.  Moore, 
Smith  O'Brien,  J.  B.  Dillon.  Nevertheless,  Dr.  MacHale,  to  whom  he 
was  deeply  attached,  kept  the  spirit  of  patriotism  alive  in  the  West. 
In  1851-1852,  aided  by  a  fair  number  of  the  clergy,  he  supported  the 
Irish  Tenant  League  and  the  Independent  Parliamentary  Party  which 
C.  G.  Duffy  had  founded.  When  Sadlier  and  Keogh  betrayed  the 
cause,  he  opposed  Dr.  Cullen  who  supported  the  two  so-called  champions 
of  the  Church.  Thereupon  the  future  Cardinal  became  most  unpopular 
in  Ireland  ;  in  fact,  complaints  against  Dr.  Cullen  were  even  forwarded 
to  Rome,  where,  however,  they  met  with  scant  attention. 


488  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION. 

the  direction  of  affairs.  To  a  certain  extent,  indeed, 
they  were  forced  to  go  with  the  tide.  But  they  set  their 
faces  steadfastly  against  crime,  and  the  worst  outrages 
always  occurred  in  those  districts  where  the  clergy  had 
taken  no  part  in  the  movement.  But  for  the  priests, 
anarchy  would  have  been  rampant,  and  Fenianism  would 
have  reigned  supreme. 

The  authorities  of  the  Church,  however,  did  not  always 
approve  of  the  political  responsibilities  assumed  by  the 
Irish  clergy.  In  1SS3.  Mgr.  Croke  subscribed  to  a 
testimonial  to  Mr.  Parnell.  England  induced  Rome  to 
call  him  to  account  for  this  act  ;  and  in  a  note  signed  by 
two  Cardinals,  the  clergy  were  forbidden  to  have  anything 
to  say  to  the  testimonial.  In  order  to  show  their 
disapproval  of  this  course,  the  public  hastened  to  increase 
their  subscriptions  to  the  fund. 

In  18S8,  owing  to  fresh  intrigues  on  the  part  of 
England,  the  Holy  See  sent  over  Mgr.  Persico11  to  enquire 
into  the  condition  of  affairs.  Before  he  had  time  to 
return  to  Rome,  the  celebrated  Rescript  of  the  Propaganda 
was  issued  without  his  knowledge  (April  23rd,  1888). 
This  Rescript,  which  was  signed  by  Cardinal  Monaco, 
condemned  the  system  of  boycotting  and  the  Plan  of 
Campaign.  It  was  a  confidential  document,  intended  only 
to  serve  as  a  guide  to  the  Irish  clergy  in  foro  conscientiae. 
Its  premature  publication  in  England  seemed,  therefore, 
a  betrayal,  and  angered  the  Irish  people  all  the  more 
because  the  condemnation,  while  indisputable  in  theory, 
was  founded  on  certain  errors  of  fact,  and  took  no  account 
whatever  of  the  exceptional  circumstances  of  the  country. 
Public  indignation  was  so  great  that  the  Episcopacy  was 
for  a  time  helpless.  In  a  Declaration  published  30th 
May  the  Bishops  insisted  on  obedience  to  the  Rescript. 
The  political  leaders,  in  reply,  protested  strongly  against 

11  Interesting  letters  from  Mgr.  Persico  to  Cardinal  Manning  were 
published  in  the  United  Irishman,  Dublin,  24th  April,  1904.  Then- 
author  is  represented  as  a  lover  of  Ireland,  who  was  more  surprised 
than  anyone  else  at  the  publication  of  the  Rescript,  and  had  been  kept 
in  complete  ignorance  of  its  existence. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  489 

the  improper  interference  of  Rome  in  Irish  affairs.  The 
Pope  issued  another  Letter  to  the  Irish  Bishops,  but 
the  people  refused  to  submit  to  it.  For  some  months 
there  were  violent  quarrels  between  the  more  advanced 
politicians  and  those  Bishops  who  were  anxious  that  the 
Rescript  should  be  obeyed.  Ultimately,  the  clergy  retired 
en  masse  for  a  time  from  the  League,  and  this  was  the 
only  result  of  the  Rescript. 

In  1890,  however,  the  Irish  clergy  re-entered  the 
political  arena  on  the  outbreak  of  the  scandal  which  led 
to  the  death  of  Parnell.  After  some  hesitation  they 
decided  to  throw  all  their  influence  against  Parnell  and 
his  followers,  and  at  various  elections  from  1891  to  1895 
they  secured  the  success  of  the  anti-Parnelhtes.  Like 
the  people  themselves,  however,  the  clergy  soon  grew 
tired  of  these  inglorious  quarrels.  Yet  they  still  retain 
their  political  influence,  which  has  only  been  strengthened 
by  twenty  years  of  Unionist  rule.  If  a  system  of  self- 
government  were  granted  to  Ireland,  it  is  probable  that 
the  influence  of  the  priests  in  politics  would  diminish. 
Even  as  it  is,  they  no  longer  interfere  to  the  same  extent. 
During  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  most  of  them,  whether 
in  town  or  country,  have  retired  from  the  sphere  of 
politics.  Their  action  has  been  due  to  motives  of 
prudence  and  reserve  and  not  to  motives  of  indifference. 
But  who  is  to  say  if  they  will  ever  regain  their  former 
power  ? 


V. — The  Power  of  the  Clergy  :    Its  Cause. 

In  truth,  the  political  power  of  the  Catholic  clergy  is  but 
one  of  the  forms,  and  not  even  the  chief  form,  of  that 
sort  of  supremacy  or  preponderating  influence  which 
in  certain  respects  they  exercise  in  Ireland.  But  that 
supremacy  is  no  absolute  one,  at  least  in  the  temporal 
domain.  Certain  interested  persons  choose  to  represent 
Ireland  as  a  priest-ridden  country7,  a  slave  to  the  priest, 


490  POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

but  such  exaggeration  is  to  be  distrusted.  It  is  by  virtue 
of  his  personal  qualities  that  the  priest  possesses  influence 
outside  the  spiritual  domain.  The  penetration  of  the 
Irish  peasant  enables  him  to  judge  the  man  beneath  the 
priest,  and  he  will  either  follow  his  adviser  or  not, 
according  to  this  judgment.  Once  let  his  adviser  be 
mistaken  and  confidence  in  him  is  gone.  We  must  always 
beware  of  the  cry  that  Ireland  is  the  victim  of  "  Ultra- 
montanism  "  and  in  danger  of  "being  Romanised," that 
by  mistaking  "  Rome's  "  interests  for  her  own,  she  tends 
to  be  but  a  "  Roman  province,"  and  that  her  sovereign 
is  the  "  Bishop  of  Rome  "  rather  than  the  King  of 
England.  Home  Rule,  it  is  said,  will  be  Rome  Rule  ; 
therefore  beware  of  it.  The  answer  to  this  has  been 
given  by  the  Catholics  of  England.  Do  they  not  reproach 
Ireland  for  her  lack  of  obedience  to  Rome  ?  Religion 
in  Ireland  has  indeed  a  close  connection  with  the  national 
life  ;  the  atmosphere  of  public  opinion  is  charged  with 
it  ;  it  intervenes  in  all  social  and  political  affairs  ;  but 
this  is  the  result  of  three  centuries  of  a  persecution  that 
was  at  the  same  time  national  and  religious.  But  Ireland 
has  always  shown  herself  able  to  distinguish  politics  from 
religion.  O'Connell  declared  that  though  Ireland  took 
her  religion  from  Rome,  she  would  as  soon  go  to 
Constantinople  for  her  politics,  and  in  this  phrase  he 
reflected  the  sentiments  of  the  people.  That  their 
sentiments  have  not  changed  is  shown  by  the  current 
dictum  :  Our  religion  from  Rome,  our  politics  from  home. 
None  the  less  it  is  true  that  in  no  country  is  the  moral 
ascendancy  of  the  clergy  so  great.  In  religion  and  in 
morals  their  authority  is  indisputable  and  undisputed. 
In  the  matter  of  education  they  are  sometimes  criticised, 
but  always  obeyed.  When  a  difficulty  arises  between  a 
tenant  and  landlord  it  is  the  priest  who  is  always 
approached  that  he  may  negotiate  a  settlement.  When 
in  1898  Ireland  had  to  undergo  her  apprenticeship  in 
local  government,  the  priests  helped  in  her  training,  and 
to  them  was  due  the  success  of  the  experiment.      Even 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  491 

in  politics,  as  is  well  known,  the  voice  of  the  clergy 
carries  the  greatest  weight,  and  this,  though  on  many 
occasions,  notably  during  the  Plan  of  Campaign,  their 
advice  was  rejected  by  the  country.  The  power 
of  the  Irish  clergy  may  be  traced  to  two  principal  causes, 
the  one  psychological — the  faith  and  the  essentially 
religious  character  of  the  nation — the  other  historical, 
the  fact  that  the  priest  has  been  for  centuries  the  sole 
guide  and  the  sole  protector  of  the  Irish  people. 

Few  race  characteristics  are  so  profoundly  marked  as 
is  the  intensity  of  religious  feeling  in  the  Celtic  races, 
and,  above  all,  in  the  Irish  race.  They  would  seem  to 
have  instinctively  adopted  the  Catholic  religion.  They 
were  predestined  for  it  by  their  spiritual  aspirations,  by 
that  idealism  of  their  nature  which  is  ever  in  contact 
with  the  other  world,  by  that  mysticism,  with  its  contempt 
for  the  unreality  of  this  world,  which  would  seem  to  have 
safeguarded  not  only  the  Irish  people  but  most  people  of 
Celtic  blood,  from  Protestant  rationalism.  Another 
condition  bearing  upon  this,  may,  perhaps,  be  found  in 
the  Gaelic  language,  with  its  profoundly  religious  spirit 
and  consequent  contrast  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue. 
Indeed,  in  the  materialistic  and  utilitarian  character  of 
the  latter  many  minds  have  come  to  see  a  danger  to  the 
faith  of  Ireland.  Three  centuries  of  persecution  have 
but  attached  Ireland  more  deeply  to  that  faith,  and  her 
fidelity  to  it  is  all  the  more  meritorious,  if  indeed  we  may 
not  say  heroic,  for  the  fact.  To-day  that  living  and 
fervent  faith  which  is  so  different  from  the  cold  observance 
by  the  Anglo-Saxon  of  his  utilitarian  and  secular  religion 
would  seem,  in  truth,  to  have  become  portion  of  the 
race  and  of  the  nationality,  so  that  the  one  cannot  be 
distinguished  from  the  other.  Her  religion  is  in  the  blood 
of  Ireland.  It  is  a  second  nature,  a  hereditary  and 
traditional  instinct,  which  has  no  need  to  be  reasoned  in 
order  to  be  profound.  It  has  not,  in  fact,  as  a  rule, 
reduced  itself  to  reason,  nor  sought  out  a  philosophical 
basis,  as  is  indeed  natural  in  a  country  in  which  education 


492         POSSIBILITIES    OF    REGENERATION 

is  behindhand  and  culture  and  the  philosophic  spirit  are 
rare.  There  may  then  be  a  foundation  of  truth,  with 
some  exaggeration,  in  some  remarks  made  by  a  Catholic 
Englishman  to  the  writer  a  short  while  ago.  He 
contended  that  Irish  religion  was  of  the  race  rather  than 
of  the  individual.  "  The  Irish,"  he  said,  "  are  Catholic 
because  they  are  Irish,  and  Irish  because  they  are 
Catholic.  They  will  not  allow  that  I,  as  an  Englishman, 
am  a  Catholic,  for  that  is  a  privilege  which  belongs  to 
them.  They  hate  me,  who  am  a  Catholic,  because  I  am 
an  Englishman,  and  above  all  because  I  am  a  Catholic 
Englishman." 

If  it  be  true  that  piety,  like  morality,  has  somewhat 
declined  in  Ireland  during  the  last  half-century,  the 
reason  is  not  far  to  seek.  It  may  be  found  in  the  brutally 
abrupt  introduction  of  the  elements  of  a  semi-education 
and  a  semi-civilisation,  both  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the 
race,  into  a  social  milieu  which  had  remained  primitive. 
The  first,  if  not  the  only  results  of  this,  were  bound  to 
be  bad.  Certainly  in  the  existing  state  of  things  the 
Irish  are  hardly  better  armed  for  the  struggles  of  their 
spiritual,  than  they  are  for  those  of  their  material  lives. 
The  transition  from  the  morally  wholesome  conditions  of 
life  in  Ireland  to  those  of  the  slums  in  the  great  English 
and  American  towns  is  so  brusque  that  the  wastage, 
consequent  on  emigration,  is  enormous.  The  English 
Catholic  of  whom  we  have  spoken  would  not  hesitate  to 
say  at  this  point  that  the  great  obstacle  to  the  conversion 
of  England  is  the  Irishman.  Study,  he  will  say,  the 
impiety  of  life  among  the  Irish  in  England  and  America. 
Certain  persons  have  estimated,  though  probably  not 
without  some  exaggeration,  that  during  the  last  sixty 
years,  half  of  the  Irish  emigrants  or  the  descendants  of 
the  Irish  immigrants  in  the  United  States,  have  been  lost 
to  Catholicism  and  to  every  sort  of  positive  religion. 
And  yet,  no  one  can  visit  Ireland  without  being  impressed 
by  the  intensity  of  Catholic  belief  there,  and  by  the 
fervour   of   its   outward   manifestations.        Watch     the 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  493 

enormous  crowds  of  people  who  fill  the  churches  in  the 
towns,  the  men  as  numerous  as  the  women  ;  see  them 
all  kneeling  on  the  flagstones,  without  a  sound  or  gesture, 
as  though  petrified  in  prayer  !  Go  to  early  Mass  on 
Sundays  in  Dublin  and  watch  three  or  four  priests 
simultaneously  giving  the  Sacrament  to  throngs  of 
communicants  too  great  for  the  size  of  the  churches. 
Observe  in  the  country,  above  all  in  the  West,  the  regular 
recitation  of  the  Rosary  in  the  family,  the  frequent 
practice  of  fasting  two  days  before  Communion,  the 
"  stations  "  held  at  Easter  and  Christmas  in  every  hamlet, 
with  general  Confession  and  Communion,  by  the  parish 
priest  who  goes  to  the  houses  of  the  people  and  celebrates 
in  them  the  Holy  Sacrifice,  according  to  a  touching 
custom  which  dates  from  the  times  of  persecution.  How 
can  we  fail  to  admire  a  piety  so  ardent  and  so  simple  ? 
And  if  the  critics  discern  in  it  traces  of  that  light  and 
mobile  nature,  which  so  often  makes  the  Irish  peasant  a 
grown-up  child,  let  us  at  least  recognise  that  of  all 
European  peoples  Ireland  is  the  most  fundamentally 
religious,  and  that  to  her  may  most  justly  be  applied,  if 
ever  it  may  be  applied,  the  Divine  saying  :  "  Go,  thy 
faith  hath  made  thee  whole  !  " 

Loving  his  religion,  the  Irish  peasant  loves  his  Church. 
His  Church  is  his  mistress,  as  the  popular  proverb  says. 
She  is  the  spiritual  authority  to  whom  he  owes  respect 
and  obedience  ;  the  jewel  which  England  has  not  been 
able  to  snatch  from  him,  the  only  permanent  organisation, 
the  only  national  expression  of  present  and  of  past 
Ireland.  Here  are  reasons  enough  for  love  !  In  times 
of  trial  she  has  been  his  only  support.  Under  Elizabeth 
and  Cromwell,  under  the  Penal  Laws,  the  priest  suffered 
with  the  people.  He  remained  faithful  to  them  unto 
death  and  martyrdom.  Thus  were  friendship  and  union 
sealed  between  priest  and  people.  The  priest  gained  for 
ever  the  gratitude  and  veneration  of  the  people  ;  he 
became  their  guide,  their  friend,  their  protector,  and  won 
that  title  which  he  still  bears,  Sagart  a  ruin,  the  beloved 


494  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

priest.  Nothing  could  be  more  touching  to  see  than  this 
attachment  which  still  exists,  this  respect,  this  confidence, 
this  intimacy,  between  the  priest  and  his  parishioners. 
The  parish  priest,  as  one  meets  him  in  the  small  towns 
of  the  West,  with  his  high  hat  and  sombre  garb,  his  great, 
strong  frame,  and  ruddy  face,  leaves  a  striking  image  in 
the  mind.  As  he  walks  by?  with  his  grave  and  keen- 
faced  young  curate,  every  hat  is  lifted,  but  he  answers 
only  with  an  amiable  word  addressed  to  each,  for  if  he 
returned  salutes  his  hat  would  very  soon  be  worn  out. 
He  seems  to  be  a  king  in  his  kingdom,  affable,  courteous, 
tolerant  with  non-Catholics,  familiar  with  his  flock,  above 
all  "popular."  He  is  in  truth  the  father  of  his  people, 
and  no  doubt  an  authoritative  enough  father.  He  is  the 
arbiter  of  their  quarrels,  the  confidant  of  their  secrets. 
To  him  they  turn  for  advice,  whether  in  affairs  of  the 
heart  or  of  the  pocket.  In  return  the  people  are  ready 
to  do  him  any  service  and  to  render  him  any  homage. 
How  many  priests  must  there  not  be  in  Ireland  of  the 
kind  made  familiar  by  Canon  Sheehan  in  his  charming 
story  of  ecclesiastical  life,  My  New  Curate,  famous  for  its 
picture  of  old  Father  Dan,  with  his  delicacy  and  wit  ! 
What  simplicity  and  gaiety  are  to  be  found  amongst  all 
those  clerics  who,  like  the  legendary  Father  O'Flynn, 
sung  of  by  A.  P.  Graves,  do  not  intend  to  leave  all  the 
gaiety  to  the  laity,  for  "  May  not  the  clergy  be  Irishmen 
too  ?  "  There  is  no  stiff  haughtiness,  no  wall  of  stone 
separating  them  from  their  flock  ;  they  make  themselves 
loved  by  their  good  grace,  and  their  ruggedness  at  need. 
Withal  they  are  generous,  and  full  of  life  and  spirit  ; 
when  they  travel  in  France  our  rural  clergy  give  them  a 
singular  impression  of  passivity  which  they  explain  by 
the  dependence  of  the  latter  in  the  past  upon  the  State. 
But  if  they  are  themselves  so  strong  and  popular,  it  must 
not  be  thought  that  this  is  due  solely  to  their  independence 
of  the  Government,  to  the  fact  that  they  are  sustained 
and  supported  by  the  people.  The  question  runs  up  to 
a  higher  plane  :   their  strength  lies  in  the  faith  and  piety 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  495 

of  Ireland,  in  that  a  whole  nation  believes,  and  practices 
its  beliefs.  There  is  another  factor  in  the  situation. 
The  Irish  priest  is  not  merely  the  spiritual  shepherd,  he 
is  the  guide  and  counsellor  in  temporal  affairs.  The 
facts  of  history  have  made  him  a  leader,  and  often  the 
sole  leader,  of  the  people.  The  Irish  nation  might  have 
had,  like  others,  its  national  aristocracy,  its  cultivated 
middle  class,  if  the  English  conquest  had  not  checked  the 
natural  course  of  development  of  the  country,  without 
creating  new  and  lasting  social  conditions.  In  the 
eighteenth  century,  when  the  perfecting  of  the  conquest 
was  followed  by  the  organisation  of  oppression,  Ireland 
had  no  longer  either  an  aristocracy,  for  the  land  was  in 
the  hands  of  English  and  Protestant  landlords,  nor  a 
middle  class,  for  the  middle  class  had  been  anihilated  or 
had  fled.  The  nation  was  nothing  but  an  unorganised 
plebs  of  destitute  peasants.  These  were  the  slaves  of  an 
ascendancy  and  of  a  government  foreign  in  race  and 
religion  ;  and  the  only  leaders  left,  endowed  at  once  with 
education  and  with  the  confidence  of  the  people,  were 
the  clergy. 

Consider  the  situation  even  to-day  as  it  is  in  the 
country  districts.  In  the  West  the  priest  is  usually  the 
only  person  in  the  village  who  has  any  education.  He 
is,  in  the  four  provinces,  the  only  capable  counsellor,  the 
only  leader  who  is  obeyed.  The  strong  farmers,  the 
village  shopkeepers,  lack  education  and  authority.  As 
for  the  politicians  the  people  make  use  of  them,  but 
appraise  them  at  what  they  are  worth.  The  landlord  ? 
More  often  than  not  he  has  not  a  common  interest,  a 
common  sentiment,  with  the  people  in  whose  eyes  he 
must  inevitably  be  an  enemy  or  a  suspect,  even  if  he  be 
a  Catholic,  for  in  that  case  he  is  a  traitor  who  has  sold 
his  country  to  keep  his  lands. 

In  the  towns  the  case  is  a  little  different,  but  the  same 
historical  causes  give  the  clergy  an  exceptional  influence. 
We  note  here  also  the  absence,  or  at  least  the  inadequacy 
in  numbers  and  in  influence  of  a  middle  class  possessed  of 


496  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

the  training,  independence,  and  culture  necessary  to  fit 
it  for  its  intellectual  and  social  role.     A  new  bourgeoisie 
is  no  doubt  beginning  to  form  itself  on  the  ruins  of  the 
old,  but  secondary  education  is  so  inadequate  and  behind- 
hand,  and  higher   education   still  so   cruelly   defective, 
that  among  the  Catholics  of  Ireland,  even  among  the 
liberal  classes,  there  are  but  few  to  be  found  who  possess 
any  real  culture.     We  find,  on  the  contrary,  a  certain 
form  of  intellectual  apathy  very  widespread,  a  distaste 
for  mental  effort,  a  certain  absence  of  the  critical  sense, 
a  lack  of  individual  judgment  which  is  all  the  more 
remarkable  inasmuch  as  the  Irish,  like  the  French,  exhibit 
naturally  in  society  a  caustic  raillery  of  mind,  and  the 
gift  of  psychology.     The  phenomenon  manifests  itself  not 
only  among  the  Catholics,  but  almost  equally  among  the 
Protestant  Ascendancy  ;   for  it  is  one  of   time's  revenges 
that  the  Penal  Laws  have  left  their  impress  hardly  less 
disastrously     upon     the     persecutors     than     upon     the 
persecuted.     We  touch  a  question  of  capital  importance 
when  we  come  to  general  education,  but  it  is  one  which, 
in  fact,  will  interest  very  few  people,  either  Catholic  or 
Protestant.     Ireland  has  never  bred  any  great  champion 
of  Catholicism  such  as  Montalembert,  Ward  or  Windhorst. 
One  could  easily  count  the  men  whose  settled  and  cultured 
minds,  and  genuine  independence,  fit  them  to  serve  as  a 
point  of  support  of  a  sane  and  thoughtful  public  opinion, 
or  to  act  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  influence  of  the  clergy 
in  the  national  life.     They  are  isolated  units,  too  few  in 
number  and  too  badly  organised  to  make  their  influence 
felt  ;    and  "it  is  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  mass  of 
the    people    should    continue    to     lean    upon    their    old 
protectors,  the  clergy. 

The  priests  themselves  are,  moreover,  the  first  to 
recognise  that  a  state  of  society  which  lacks  an  educated 
laity  must  be  abnormal  and  unhealthy.  They  are  the 
first  to  desire  the  development  of  an  educated  and  liberal 
middle  class  from  whom  they  will  claim  only  the 
recognition  of  their  rights  in  matters  of  faith  and  morals. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  <97 

But  for  the  ultimate  source  of  the  evil  we  must  ever 
recur  to  the  persecutions  and  the  Penal  Laws.  That 
regime  deprived  Ireland  of  her  directing  classes,  and 
thereby  assured  the  supremacy  of  the  clergy.  It  reduced 
the  people  as  inevitably  to  ignorance  as  to  poverty  ;  and 
there  followed  necessarily  the  results  that  are  seen  to-day, 
inertia,  lethargy  of  opinion,  lack  of  liberty  of  mind,  of 
energy,  and  of  power  of  moral  resistance.  The  Irish 
Catholic  still  wears  the  mark  of  servitude  ;  he  is  still,  as 
De  Beaumont  said  and  as  he  himself  affirms,  half  a  slave, 
by  reason  of  his  ignorance  and  weakness  of  character. 
But  the  evil  is  decreasing.  Ireland  is  raising  herself  up, 
little  by  little,  from  her  ancient  servitude.  The  "  Papists  " 
are  beginning  to  claim  their  rights,  and  to  make  themselves 
and  their  religion  respected.  Education  is  improving  ; 
the  middle  class  is  growing,  and  with  it  the  liberal  and 
cultured  nucleus.  As  these  forces  become  stronger,  the 
causes  of  the  supremacy  of  the  clergy  will  decrease. 
When  Ireland  has  created  that  really  educated  and 
independent  middle  class,  which  is  at  present  her  most 
urgent  need,  one  may  predict  the  disappearance  of  what 
is  now  abnormal  and  will  then  be  extravagant,  inasmuch 
as  it  will  no  longer  respond  to  a  necessity  in  fact,  that 
is  to  say,  the  temporal  supremacy  of  the  Catholic 
clergy. 


VI. — The  Results. 

When  the  matter  is  looked  at  from  the  point  of  view 
of  history,  it  is  clear  that  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Church  is  but  a  transitory  phase  in  the  social  evolution 
of  the  country,  a  legacy  of  the  past,  a  necessary  product 
of  peculiar  conditions  for  which  England  and  her 
representatives  in  Ireland,  the  constant  denouncers  of 
the  clergy,  are  primarily  responsible.  What  we  are 
concerned  with  is  the  use  which  they  have  made  of  their 
power.      We  do  not  pretend  that  the  Irish  priests  have 

2  K 


498  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

always  been  impeccable  and  infallible  in  the  temporal 
domain.  They  are  men,  and  it  is  not  in  men,  and  above 
all  in  a  class  of  men,  to  be  without  fault.  They  have 
been  reproached  for  their  love  of  power,  and  for 
occasional  abuse  of  their  authority.  It  has  been  said 
that  they  have  not  allowed  the  laymen  enough  liberty 
in  deed  and  in  thought,  that  is  to  say,  in  questions 
outside  the  sphere  of  faith  and  morals.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  to  note  the  avowal  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett, 
an  Irish  Protestant,  who  recognises  that  "  the  immense 
power  of  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  has  been  singularly 
little  abused."  i  It  has  been  said  that  they  have  made 
excessive  demands  upon  the  people's  purse,  notably  by 
the  increase  of  fees  for  marriages,  and  the  like  ;  that 
they  are  somewhat  selfish,  that  they  live,  and  live  too 
comfortably,  among  a  poverty-stricken  people  ;  but  as  a 
fact,  the  people  of  Ireland  have  always  counted  it  a 
point  of  honour  to  make  life  easy  for  the  men  of  God. 
Generally  speaking,  we  may  call  the  influence  of  the 
clergy  during  the  nineteenth  century  a  conservative  and 
a  moderating  influence,  apter  to  restrain  evil  than  to 
forward  good,  and  to  check  the  feet  of  their  flock  on  the 
downward,  rather  than  to  urge  them  along  the  upward 
path.  How  could  it  have  been  otherwise,  at  least  at  the 
beginning,  when  recent  persecution  and  constant 
oppression  provoked  an  enslaved  people  to  violence  and 
to  revolt,  which  called  for  a  repressive  and  soothing 
hand,  for  the  bridle  and  not  the  whip  ? 

The  most  powerful  agent  of  peace  that  ever  worked  in 
Ireland  is  the  Catholic  Church,  and  England  can  never 
give  thanks  enough  to  her.  If  this  agent  of  peace  has 
not  always  been  able  to  eliminate  the  causes  of  trouble 
it  has  always  counter-balanced  their  action,  and  cancelled 
their  effects.  "  The  Irish  would  be  free  long  ago,"  said 
John  Mitchel,  the  revolutionary,  "  but  for  their  damned 
souls."     Not  only  have  the  clergy  as  a  body  always  held 

Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  106. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  499 

aloof  from  any  movement  of  rebellion,2  but  they  have 
sapped  the  bases  of  every  insurrection  and  paralysed  all 
the  efforts  of  Fenianism,  and  all  the  activity  of  secret 
societies,  by  the  threat  of  excommunication.  One  has 
but  to  think  of  the  extent  of  their  power,  their  influence 
in  public  life,  even  to  the  very  furthest  hamlet  hidden 
in  the  country,  and  the  firm  and  eager  loyalty  which  is 
given  them  by  the  people,  and  then  ask  oneself  what 
would  have  happened  if  they  had  taken  their  stand  on 
the  side  of  revolutionary  action. 

The  clergy  have  taken  part  in  the  legal  and  constitutional 
agitation  as  much  out  of  patriotism  as  from  fear  of  the 
revolutionary  movement.  They  have  not  always  acted 
with  moderation,  and  no  doubt  their  intervention  in  the 
domain  of  politics  during  the  last  century  is,  in  many 
instances,  to  be  regretted.  Priests  became  tribunes,  and 
were  carried  to  wild  extremes  during  the  agrarian  crisis 
of  1880  to  1890.  The  majority  of  the  clergy,  from  1890 
to  1895,  were  leaders  of  the  melancholy  campaign  against 
Parnellism,  and  even  to-day  the  harangues  of  priests  on 
public  platforms  are  sometimes  extravagant,  and  the 
ranks  of  the  clergy  are  rent  by  political  disputes.  But 
here  also  we  must  not  forget  that  it  is  English  tyranny 
which  has  forced  the  clergy  to  adopt  a  political  role  by 
making  necessary  a  series  of  constitutional  agitations  of 
which  they  had  neither  the  right  nor  the  power  to  remain 
indifferent  spectators.  And  there  is  no  impartial  judge 
who  does  not  recognise  that  on  the  whole,  and  in  spite 
of  individual  excesses,  the  clergy  have  done  their  best  to 
control  agitation,  to  proscribe  violence,  and  to  make 
anarchy  feel  f"ie  weight  of  their  moderating  and  repressive 
authority. 

A  conservative  power  does  not  easily  become  a  worker 
in    the   cause    of   progress.       If   the     Irish   clergy    have 

2  Some  priests  have,  nevertheless,  attached  themselves  personally  to 
the  Separatist  movement,  and  even  to  the  physical  force  movement. 
It  is  a  curious  thing  that  these  priests  of  the  "  advance  guard"  have 
been,  more  often,  regular  than  secular  priests.  A  good  number  of 
priests  took  part  in  the  insurrections  of  1798  and  of  1848. 


5oo  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

succeeded  admirably  in  preserving  the  virtue  and  piety 
of  their  people,  they  have  not  had  as  much  success  in 
that  other  task,  with  its  difficulties  of  quite  another  kind, 
the  intellectual  and  social  regeneration  of  Ireland.  There 
have,  however,  been  many  priests  who  have  worked  to 
raise  the  condition  of  their  flock  and  succeeded,  men  like 
that  Father  Davis  of  Baltimore,  of  whom  a  minister  said, 
in  the  British  Parliament,  that  they  were  "  heroes  as  well 
as  saints."  The  clergy  have  worked  amongst  the  most 
hard-pressed  of  their  people,  preaching,  above  all  things, 
patience  and  resignation  ;  and  absorbed  in  their  mission 
of  peace  they  have,  perhaps,  somewhat  neglected  the 
task  of  forming  and  strengthening  character  and  arming 
it  for  the  struggle  for  life.  We  may  ignore  those  Ultras 
for  whom  the  Catholic  Church  is  the  direct  and  exclusive 
cause  of  all  the  ills  of  Ireland. 3  But  a  Liberal  Protestant, 
Sir  Horace  Plunkett,  would  lay  the  fault  at  the  doors  of 
Catholicism  itself,  whose  tendencies,  he  thinks,  are  "  non- 
economic  if  not  actually  anti-economic."  4  Need  we  point 
out  that  morality  and  character  must  not  be  confounded 
with  the  economic  spirit,  that  religious  faith  has  not  for 
its  first  purpose  in  the  Catholic  mind,  as  it  would  seem 
to  have  in  certain  Protestant  and  Anglo-Saxon  minds, 
the  development  of  worldly  energy  and  the  business  sense, 
and  that,  finally,  Catholicism  itself  cannot  be  held 
responsible  for  the  errors  and  faults  of  those  who  may 
have  been  its  teachers  at  a  certain  time  and  in  a  certain 
country  ?  Moreover,  it  is  a  strange  thing  that  English 
Protestants,  who  were  the  authors  of  Ireland's  troubles, 
or  Irish  Protestants,  who  were  the  instruments  and  the 
beneficiaries  of  it,  should  to-day  reproach  the  people  and 

3  This  thesis  has  been  illustrated  by  the  novelist,  George  Moore,  in 
The  Unbilled  Field  (London,  1903),  and  developed  in  Mr.  Filson  Young's 
recent  book,  Ireland  at  the  Cross  Roads  (London,  1903).  This  gross 
and  fanatical  theory  is  not  worthy  the  honour  of  exposition  or 
discussion.  We  may  be  satisfied  to  remark  that  it  is  easy  and  simple 
to  throw  upon  Rome  the  responsibility  of  Ireland  s  misfortunes,  and 
thus  clear  the  character  of  England  and  of  the  English  colony  in 
Ireland. 

4  Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  101-102. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  501 

the  clergy  of  Ireland  for  not  having  overcome  the  moral 
results  of  oppression.  This  superior  and  critical  state  of 
mind  is  no  new  thing.  When,  in  the  year  1749,  the 
philosopher,  Archbishop  Berkeley,  wrote  in  that  curious 
treatise,  A  Word  to  the  Wise,  that  he  did  not  know  on 
the  earth  of  a  class  of  men  who  had  power  to  do  so 
much  good,  and  to  do  it  so  easily  and  with  so  much 
benefit  to  others  as  the  Catholic  priests  of  Ireland, 
he  was  writing  in  that  facile  fashion  which  is  now  adopted 
by  critics  of  the  school  of  Sir  Horace  Plunkett.  He  forgot 
to  ask  himself  whether  the  Penal  Laws  then  in  operation 
against  the  Catholics  would  not  be  prolonged  by  their 
after-effects  right  into  the  nineteenth  century,  and  soon 
aggravated  by  the  worst  of  civil  and  agrarian  systems, 
so  as  to  paralyse  in  advance  all  progress  in  Ireland. 
We  have  also  to  bear  in  mind  the  powerful  forces  which 
until  quite  lately  were  marshalled  against  the  social 
development  of  Ireland,  and  the  causes  which  have 
made  the  Irish  clergy  what  they  are. 

.They  are  of  the  people.  The  Penal  Laws  have  left 
their  mark  upon  them  as  upon  the  people  ;  and  if  these 
laws  are  gone,  having  accomplished  their  work,  England 
remains  face  to  face  with  Ireland,  isolating  her  from  the 
outside  world  and  shutting  her  within  the  narrow  circle 
of  an  artificial  horizon.  The  Irish  priest  has  never  escaped 
from  that  peculiar  milieu,  the  depressing  influence  of 
which  he  undergoes  ;  his  gaze  has  never  reached  beyond 
the  magic  circle.  The  Catholic  clergy  have  never  ceased 
to  regard  their  flock  as  the  object  of  the  snares  set  by 
Protestantism  ;  and  moreover,  they  have  not  behind 
them,  in  the  exercise  of  their  power,  the  stimulus  of  an 
independent  and  enlightened  public  opinion,  nor  have 
they  any  longer  that  of  violent  persecution.  Accordingly, 
the  clergy,  like  the  people,  being  absorbed  in  the  struggle 
against  oppression,  and  waiting  for  the  recognition  of 
their  political  claims,  are  slow  to  follow  in  the  path  of 
social  progress.  In  that  charming  Father  Dan  of  Canon 
Sheehan's    My    New    Curate,    we    may    note    all     the 


502  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

characteristics  of  a  whole  generation  of  Irish  priests,  a 
generation  that  is  to-day  coming  to  an  end.  Father  Dan 
is  easy-going,  he  respects  the  past,  he  distrusts  what  is 
new.  He  has  tried  to  do  something  for  his  people,  but 
has  failed  ;  and  in  the  end  has  accepted  the  inevitable, 
saying  to  himself  that  progress  must  be  slow,  and  that 
one  cannot  in  one  day  undo  the  work  of  three  hundred 
years.  He  has  taken  for  his  motto  Quieta  non  movere, 
and  he  is  resigned.  "  Cui  bono  ?  'Twill  be  all  the  same  in 
a  hundred  years." 

It  is  in  the  matter  of  education  that  the  clergy  have 
had  reproach  most  heaped  upon  them.  It  is  said  that 
they  did  not  show,  during  the  nineteenth  century,  enough 
initiative  and  enough  of  the  progressive  spirit.  Were  they 
well  inspired — we  speak  only  in  hypothesis,  for  the 
Catholic  position  in  the  matter  of  education  is  neither 
doubtful  nor  disputable — in  taking  measures  to  keep 
Catholics  out  of  Trinity  College  and  the  Queen's  Colleges, 
that  they  might  the  more  surely  protect  faiths,  which 
were  apparently  somewhat  delicate  ?  By  so  doing  they 
almost  completely  deprived  Catholics  of  any  kind  of 
higher  education.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that, 
directly  or  indirectly,  the  clergy  control  almost  all  the 
primary  and  secondary  education  of  Catholics,  for  the 
reason  that  there  is  a  lack  of  educated  laymen,  and  that, 
moreover,  the  Church  must  defend  herself  against  the 
efforts  made  in  every  direction  by  the  official  and  the 
officious  proselytisers,  in  primary  schools  and  in 
propagandist  societies.  Hence  her  first  step  was  to 
denominationalise  the  primary  schools.  Monopoly  is 
never  a  good  thing  in  the  realm  of  education,  and  there 
is  no  denying  that  public  education  in  Ireland  has 
remained,  on  the  whole,  backward  and  inefficient,  at  least 
until  recent  years.  To  this  we  must  ascribe  the  bitter 
attacks  directed  against  the  Irish  clergy  in  their  role  as 
educationists,  and  the  more    or  less  open  campaign5  in 

5  A  campaign  analogous  to  that  of  the  Nonconformists  in  England, 
and  based  upon  an  idea  which  Irish  or  English  Catholics,  and  indeed 
the  Anglicans  of  England  have  never  been  ready  to  admit  :     viz.,  that 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  503 

favour  of  the  secularisation  of  education.  None  the  less 
one  must  not  underrate  the  services  rendered  to  education 
whether  by  the  priests  as  managers  of  primary  schools, 
or  by  that  admirable  order,  the  Christian  Brothers,  who, 
without  ever  having  received  a  penny  from  the  State, 
give  a  truly  national  education  of  the  first  order  in  their 
three  hundred  schools  to  over  thirty  thousand  scholars. 
The  successes  obtained  by  Catholic  Colleges  over  their 
Protestant  competitors  must  also  be  borne  in  mind. 
And  is  not  the  State  itself  largely  responsible  for  the 
weakness  of  education,  when  by  its  programmes  and 
examinations  it  favours  a  method  of  teaching  which  is 
badly  adapted  to  the  aspirations  of  the  country,  and 
imposes  out-of-date  methods  which  are  purely  mechanical 
and  destructive  of  talent  ?  For  the  rest,  is  it  not 
amusing  to  see  Protestants,  and  not  the  smaller  fry 
among  them — the  Archbishop  of  Killaloe,  for  instance,  in 
a  speech  at  a  Synod  in  1902 — recognising  the  superiority 
of  the  Catholic  Schools  over  the  Protestant  Schools  of 
Ireland  ?  There  are,  in  addition,  a  great  number  of 
Protestants  who  send  their  children  for  choice  to  Catholic 
schools  ;  and  some  ten  per  cent,  of  the  students  on  the 
roll  of  the  Jesuit  University  College  of  Dublin  are 
Protestants,  not  a  few  of  them  being,  indeed,  destined 
for  the  ministry.5 

education  belongs  to  the  State.  Cf.  Starkie,  Recent  Reforms  in  Irish 
Education,  Dublin,  1902. 

6  The  report  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Dale  (an  Englishman  and  a  Protestant), 
Inspector  of  the  English  Board  of  Education,  in  pursuance  of  the 
enquiry  on  which  he  had  been  sent  by  the  Government  upon  the 
system  of  primary  instruction  in  Ireland,  renders  full  justice  to  the 
superiority  of  primary  Catholic  schools,  and  particularly  the  Nuns' 
schools.  Of  the  latter  he  writes  :  "  The  order  and  tone  in  these  schools 
are  generally  excellent,  a  fact  which  is  to  be  ascribed  partly  to  the 
very  large  number  of  adult  teachers  employed  in  them  when  compared 
with  the  ordinary  schools,  partly  to  the  constant  supervision  exercised 
by  the  members  of  the  community.  It  is  impossible  to  doubt  the 
admirable  influence  which  the  teachers  in  these  schools  have  over  their 
pupils,  and  the  training  which  is  given  in  habits  of  order,  neatness  and 
ready  obedience.  In  my  broad  view  of  what  is  involved  in  the  education 
of  children  of  the  poorer  classes,  these  merits,  though  not  capable  of 
being  measured  with  the  same  definiteness  as  intellectual  proficiency, 
are  not  less  deserving  of  recognition."  Report  of  Mr.  F.  H.  Dale, 
Inspector  of  Schools,  on  Primary  Education  in  Ireland,  Dublin,  1904, 
p.  65  and  66. 


504  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

However  this  may  be,  the  Irish  clergy  would,  no  doubt, 
have  done  more  to  forward  the  intellectual  and  social 
development  of  Ireland  if  they  had  themselves  been  better 
prepared  for  the  task.  The  great  Irish  Seminary  of 
Maynooth  has  always  sent  out  very  saintly  priests, 
admirably  trained  for  their  spiritual  mission,  but,  until 
lately  at  least,  Maynooth  did  not  prepare  her  sons  very 
efficiently  for  their  role  as  leaders  in  the  highest 
sense  of  the  word,  for  that  special  function  which  belongs 
to  the  promoters  of  social  progress  in  Ireland.  Although 
sacred  studies  were  of  a  very  high  class,  profane  studies 
were  somewhat  neglected.  The  student  was  not 
sufficiently  advanced  on  entrance.  The  priest  left  with 
an  excellent  ecclesiastical  education,  but  his  general 
knowledge  was  narrow  and  incomplete.  He  was  deficient 
in  those  qualities  which  are  developed  by  a  good  classical 
and  scientific  education,  and  lacked  that  indefinable  thing 
which,  according  to  the  Bishop  of  Limerick,  is  "  not 
knowledge  but  culture."  ~  It  is  not  astonishing,  then,  if 
the  priest,  once  installed  and  isolated  in  his  country 
presbyten-,  often  showed  very  little  intellectual  activity 
and  little  taste  for  study,  if  his  library  was  poor  and  his 
pen  unfruitful,  and  if  he  had  little  success  in  the  training 
of  mind  and  character. 

Here  we  should  testify  also  to  the  progress  which 
Maynooth  has  realised  during  the  last  twenty  years,  in 
the  way  of  classical  and  scientific  study,  the  results  of 
which  must  in  the  end  have  an  influence  on  the  Irish 
clergy  in  the  sphere  of  social  action.  Alike  in  the  sciences 
and  in  literature,  the  standard  of  study  has  been  raised 
and  the  number  of  professors  increased.  Laymen  have 
been  nominated  to  five  or  six  chairs,  and  competent 
persons  appointed  to  deliver  series  of  lectures  upon 
economic  and  social  subjects.  An  attempt  is  made  to 
procure  for  some  at  least  of  the  clergy  the  benefits  of 

7  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education,  I -21.  Dr.  O'Dvryer 
said  personally,  to  the  writer,  that  Maynooth  was  too  large  for  the 
purpose  of  individual  formation  of  characters. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  505 

university  education  which  will  not  only  enable  the 
Church,  following  the  desire  of  Leo  XIII. ,  to  have  worthy 
representatives  in  all  branches  of  higher  culture,  but 
will  also  help  to  bring  together  priest  and  people,  by 
promoting  friendship  between  lay  and  ecclesiastical 
students.  Maynooth  being  legally  incompetent  to  grant 
Diplomas  except  in  Theology,  sends  her  priests  and  future 
priests  up  every  year  to  take  their  degrees  in  the  Royal 
University  of  Ireland.  Inestimable  will  be  the  advantages 
to  the  clergy  themselves  of  the  establishment  of  a  National 
University,  open  to  Catholics.  Such  a  university  Ireland 
has  never  ceased  to  demand  ;  and  some  day,  perhaps, 
the  Imperial  Government  will  decide  to  create  and  endow 
it  in  the  face  of  Trinity  College,  and  thus  give  the  world 
another  example  of  true  liberalism. 

It  is  only  just  to  say  that  all  the  efforts  which  have 
been  made  in  our  day  to  widen  the  general  culture  of 
the  priest  have  contributed  largely  to  the  success  which 
recent  movements  of  ideas  have  met  with  amongst  the 
clergy.  There  was  indeed  in  the  governing  principles  of 
the  Gaelic  movement,  and  the  new  economic  movement, 
much  on  which  the  clergy  might  reflect  with  profit,  and 
much  that  might  inspire  them  to  a  salutary  examination 
of  their  consciences.  Had  they,  too,  not  abused  politics 
and  placed  the  agrarian  and  constitutional  claims  too 
high  above  the  need  for  the  inner  reform  and  education 
of  the  individual  ?  Had  they  not  unconsciously  favoured 
the  progress  of  Anglicisation  by  that  opportunist  spirit 
which  made  them  always  look  towards  England  for  every 
measure  of  reparation  ?  The  fact  is,  that  vers'  soon 
everything  that  was  youngest  and  most  enlightened  in 
the  clergy  was  touched  by  the  new  spirit.  Their  horizon, 
changed,  grew  larger.  Their  practical  activity  is  directed 
less  and  less  towards  politics,  and  more  and  more  towards 
intellectual  and  social  reforms,  and  the  necessary  work 
of  national  education.  It  may  be  that  priests  are  still 
to  be  found  who  dispute  the  value  of  a  Gaelic  revival, 
or  declare  that  all  economic  effort  must  be  relegated  to 


506  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

the  time  which  will  follow  the  general  purchase  of  the 
land  or  the  establishment  of  Home  Rule  ;  but  none  the 
less  there  has  grown  up  amongst  the  Irish  clergy  a  new 
generation,  inspired  by  new  ideas  very  different  from 
those  of  that  older  generation,  of  whom  Father  Dan  in 
My  Xen'  Curate  was  such  an  admirable  type.  This  new 
generation  is  active  and  energetic,  neither  discouraged 
nor  pessimistic,  better  educated  and  furnished  with  better 
instruments  for  its  social  role  than  its  predecessor,  and 
to-day  it  is  able  to  give  leaders  to  two  great  movements 
of  national  regeneration. 

Precursors  have  not  been  wanting  even  among  the 
clergy.  Maynooth,  where  for  nearly  thirty  years  the 
Irish  Language  Chair  had  fallen  into  neglect,  had  the 
honour  to  train  one  of  the  first  promoters  of  the  Gaelic 
revival  in  the  person  of  Father  O'Growney,  as  it  trained 
one  of  the  principal  workers  in  the  movement  in  the 
person  of  Father  O'Hickey.  These  two  pioneers  replaced 
Irish  in  its  place  of  honour  at  Maynooth,  and  so  it  is 
that  for  some  3Tears  past  there  is  not  one  of  the  young 
Lévites  at  the  great  College  of  Ireland  who  is  not  an 
enthusiast  for  the  Gaelic  language  and  for  the  idea  of 
the  Gaelic  revival.  Similarly  it  is  doubtful  if  anyone 
has  done  more  to  define  and  propagate  the  master  ideas 
of  the  new  co-operative  movement  than  the  eminent 
Jesuit,  Father  Finlay.  Throughout  Ireland  the  Christian 
Brothers  have  been,  side  by  side  with  the  parish  clergy, 
the  pioneers  of  the  new  idea.  Education  is  growing 
more  and  more  Irish  in  the  congregational  colleges  and 
convents,  which  were  till  lately  such  centres  of  Anglicisa- 
tion,  whilst  under  the  patronage  of  the  secular  or  regular 
clergy  technical  education  has  been  everywhere 
organised.  A  good  number  of  the  Bishops  favour  the 
Gaelic  movement,  for  in  it  they  see  an  ally  in  the  struggle 
for  the  faith.  A  good  number,  too,  are  supporters  of 
the  new  economic  movement.  The  clergy  are  putting 
their  shoulders  to  the  wheel  ;  they  are  founding  Gaelic 
classes  and  associations,  new  industries,  country  banks 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  507 

and  syndicates.  At  Ballina  a  country  clergyman,  Father 
Quinn,  has  founded  a  co-operative  hosiery  factory. 
At  Castlebar  Father  Lyons  has  started  an  electric  power 
station.  At  Foxford  the  Sisters  of  Charity  have 
established  a  textile  industry,  and  are  realising  wonders 
in  the  way  of  raising  the  condition  of  the  peasantry  for 
miles  around.  Only  the  priest  and  the  Sister  of  Charity 
can  make  themselves  understood  by  the  peasant,  persuade 
him  to  break  away  from  his  old  habits,  and  make  him 
eager  for  progress.  They  alone  are  understood,  because 
they  are  known  to  be  disinterested. 

With  the  coming  of  the  new  ideas,  the  clergy  have 
ardently  renewed  the  struggle  against  the  two  curses  of 
Ireland,  emigration  and  drunkenness.  Against  emigration, 
the  cause  of  which  is  a  deep  social  and  economic  fact, 
but  little  can  be  done.8  The  evil  can  in  part  be 
combated,  and  some  check  put  upon  that  voluntary 
emigration  which  results  less  from  poverty  than  from 
the  spirit  of  imitation,  the  desire  for  something  new,  the 
sadness  of  rural  life.  Such  emigration  the  priests  combat 
by  preaching  of  its  material  and  moral  risks,  and  by 
striving  to  bind  the  peasant  to  the  country  through  the 
agency  of  rural  clubs,  lee  tares  and  libraries.  The 
campaign  against  drunkenness  is  more  active  and 
relatively  more  easy,  and  in  this  field,  as  everyone  knows, 
a  famous  Capuchin  fought  sixty  years  ago,  and  achieved 
a  marvellous  success  by  the  most  radical  means,  the 
enrolment  of  the  people  en  masse  under  the  banner  of  total 
abstinence.  Pamphlets,  speeches,  congresses,  all  these 
methods  the  Irish  clergy  distrust  ;  there  is  but  one  that 
succeeds,  and  that  is  the  pledge,  the  solemn  engagement 

8  The  Catholic  clergy  have  often  been  reproached  with  having 
encouraged  emigration  from  rural  districts,  bv  preventing  with  excessive 
rigour,  games,  reunions,  Sunday  dances,  thus  spreading  through  the 
country  a  sort  of  Calvinistic  gloom.  The  exodus,  according  to  Sir 
Horace  Plunkett  (Ireland  in  the  New  Century,  p.  117).  is  due  in  part 
to  this  feeling  that,  with  a  good  motive  no  doubt,  the  clergy  are  taking 
joy — innocent  joy — from  the  social  side  of  the  home  life.  There  may 
be  some  truth  in  the  reproach,  but  it  is  a  strange  one  in  the  mouths  of 
those  who  have  ever  spent  a  Sunday  in  Belfast. 


508  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

of  abstinence  or  of  temperance  taken  collectively  and 
periodically  by  all  the  men  banded  together.  To-day 
these  leagues  exist  all  over  the  country  to  a  greater  or 
less  degree.  Total  abstinence  is  for  the  elite,  temperance 
for  the  general  mass  of  the  people  ;  and  since  morals, 
above  all  when  they  are  vicious,  are  much  the  same  in 
one  country  as  in  another,  the  reader  will  not  be 
astonished  to  hear  that  the  most  successful  league  is  the 
Anti-Treating  League,  the  League  against  treating  in  the 
public-house.  Each  member  promises  neither  to  accept 
nor  to  pay  for  treats.  Here  is  a  method  which  might 
well  be  imitated  in  many  districts  of  France.  Let  us 
hope  that  this  campaign  will  achieve  a  success  as  great 
as  that  of  Father  Mathew's,  but  more  lasting.  It  has 
what  Father  Mathew's  had  not,  that  is  to  say, 
organisation  ;  and  nothing  can  take  the  place  of 
organisation,  not  even  enthusiasm. 


VII. — The  Future  :  Anti-clericalism. 

There  is,  surely,  hope  for  the  future,  now  that  the  first 
steps  in  the  right  direction  have  been  taken.  The  hour 
is  indeed  critical.  A  democracy  needs  leaders,  and  until 
the  Irish  democracy  has  created  from  itself  an  elite  strong, 
independent,  and  enlightened  enough  to  direct  alone  the 
destinies  of  the  country,  the  social  leadership  of  Ireland 
must  remain  provisionally  in  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  as 
the  only  capable  agents,  the  only  possible  pioneers,  of 
those  new  movements  to  which  the  nation  looks  for 
salvation.  No  doubt  the  mission  of  God's  ministers  is 
not  of  this  world,  and  the  apostles  were  sent  forth  to 
preach  the  divine  law  and  not  human  progress  to  the 
nations.  But  can  it  be  denied  that  there  exist  in  Ireland 
special  conditions,  the  legacy  of  a  past  of  suffering,  which 
impose  a  special  duty  upon  the  clergy  ?  They  have, 
besides  their  spiritual  mission,  and  closely  connected  with 
it,  a  social  mission  ;    and  this  mission  it  is  their  duty  to 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  509 

fulfil  so  long  as  they  have  the  power.  What  the  Czech 
clergy  did  for  Bohemia,  what  the  Flemish  clergy  did  for 
Belgium,  the  Irish  clergy  have  the  power  to  do  for  Ireland. 
Moreover,  let  them  remember  this,  that  whatever  is  done 
apart  from  them,  or  despite  them,  may  well  be  done  to 
their  hurt.  Emigration  and  Anglicisation,  if  not  checked, 
may  reduce  their  flock  to  such  a  point  that  one  day  they 
will  find  no  faithful  left  for  their  care.  Are  they  about 
to  show  the  adaptability  and  breadth  of  mind  necessary 
in  the  exercise  of  the  delicate  duty  that  falls  to  them 
of  promoting  social  progress  while  at  the  same  time  they 
avoid  wounding  the  susceptibilities  of  a  young  democracy, 
alarming  its  independence,  or  awakening  its  jealousies  ? 
Will  they  have  the  energy  and  perseverance  requisite 
if  they  are  to  guide  aright  the  regeneration  of  a  people 
by  means  of  the  education  of  the  individual,  and  to 
conquer  that  inertia  of  Ireland  which,  according  to 
Father  Dan,  nothing  in  the  world  can  conquer  ?  In 
short,  will  they  succeed  in  their  work,  and  will  they  be 
able  to  restore  to  Ireland,  after  the  bankruptcy  of 
Protestantism,  and  so  to  the  greater  glory  of  Catho- 
licism, something  of  that  splendour  which  the  monks 
had  lent  to  her  civilisation  in  the  sixth  and  seventh 
centuries  ? 

In  the  answer  to  that  question  lies  the  secret  of  the 
future.  For  the  moment  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
day  is  very  likely  approaching  when  the  Irish  democracy, 
having  attained  its  majority,  will  demand  from  the  clergy 
an  account  of  themselves.  Anti-clericalism,  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  word  is  understood  in  France,  has  not  so 
far  taken  a  hold  on  the  people  of  Ireland,  for  their  faith 
has  roots  too  profound,  and,  if  one  may  say  so,  too 
national.  We  shall  therefore  not  apply  that  term  to  the 
hostility,  even  to  this  day  more  political  than  religious, 
against  the  Catholic  Church  exhibited  by  the  Irish 
Protestants,  or  at  least  by  the  more  noisy  among  them, 
with  their  everlasting  cry  of  "  Too  many  churches," 
"  Too    many    priests,"     "  Too   much    wealth."     These 


5io  POSSIBILITIES  OF  REGENERATION 

Protestants  fail  to  remember  that  they  themselves  had 
not  the  trouble  of  building  churches  because,  at  the 
Reformation,  they  took  possession  of  those  of  the  Irish. 
The}T  also  overlook  the  fact  that  the  Episcopal  Church 
possesses  not  only  the  very  considerable  capital  which 
Disestablishment  handed  over  to  it,  but  that  its  clergy 
is  sensibly  more  numerous  than  the  Catholic  clergy  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  the  laity.1  On  the  Catholic 
side  anti-clericalism  is  confined  to  a  small  group  of 
"  intellectuals,"  or  self-styled  "intellectuals,"  who  naively 
admire  the  worst  anti-clericals  of  France,  a  growing 
number  of  agnostics,  Voltairians,  scoffers,  and  indiffer- 
entists.  Then  there  are  some  politicians  temporarily  at 
war  with  the  clergy  on  account  of  political  jealousies,  and 
some  republican  extremists  who  are  more  or  less  avowed 
partisans  of  the  doctrine  of  physical  force  which  the 
Church  has  always  proscribed  ;  but  these  are  adversaries 
of  the  politics  of  the  clergy  rather  than  of  the  clergy 
themselves.  In  fact,  anti-clericalism  is  a  small  enough 
affair  at  present.  Ireland,  which,  owing  to  the  excep- 
tional social  power  of  the  clergy,  would  seem  to  offer  much 
temptation  to  the  sectaries,  is  not  yet  ripe.  But  un- 
doubtedly the  movement  has  already  started  and  is  in 
progress.  What  will  be  the  outcome  of  it  ?  It  will 
depend  to  a  great  extent  upon  the  clergy  themselves. 
When  things  come  to  the  test  the  best  safeguard  of 
Catholicism  in  Ireland  may  be  found — 'felix  culpa — 
precisely  in  the  anti-Catholicism  of  the  Anglo-Irish 
Protestants.  And  yet  an  outbreak  of  anti-clericalism 
would  be  a  grave  menace  to  the  future  of  the  country. 
This  apprehension  has  been  expressed  quite  recently  by 
an  Irish  Protestant,  in  somewhat  excessive  terms,  when 
he  said  that  if  an  anti-clerical  movement  were  ever  to 
succeed  in  Ireland  she  would  run  such  a  danger  of  moral 

1  There  are  3,711  Catholic  priests  in  Ireland  to  a  Catholic  population 
of  3,808,661,  that  is  to  say,  1  to  891.  The  Episcopalians  have  1  minister 
to  every  363,  and  the  Presbyterians  1  minister  to  every  554  members 
-of  their  respective  churches. 


THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION  511 

degradation  that  all  hope  of  national  progress  would  be 
destroyed  at  a  blow.2 

Ireland  needs  above  all  things,  if  her  regeneration  is 
to  be  achieved,  that  first  of  all  blessings,  religious  peace. 
In  religion,  above  all,  war  is  impious.  Peace  between 
Protestants  and  Catholics,  peace  between  Catholics  and 
anti-clericals,  is  her  most  imperative  need.  May  the 
Protestants  of  Ireland  learn  tolerance  towards  Catholicism 
and  the  Catholics,  as  their  brothers  in  England  have 
learnt  it.  May  the  Catholic  clergy  in  their  social  and  public 
action  learn  to  be  liberal  as  it  is  their  nature  to  be,  and 
as  they  would  be  had  it  not  been  for  persecution  in  the 
past  and  the  constant  campaign  of  Protestant  proselytism. 
Lastly,  may  the  union  between  priests  and  people  in 
Ireland  be  as  strong  and  as  confident  as  it  has  been 
during  the  last  two  centuries.  Only  thus  may  we  expect 
better  days,  and  only  thus  can  the  famous  and  enthusiastic 
prophecy  of  Cardinal  Newman  be  realised.  "  I  look," 
he  said,  "  towards  a  land  both  old  and  young  ;  old  in  its 
Christianity,  young  in  the  promise  of  its  future  ;  a  nation 
which  received  grace  before  the  Saxon  came  to  Britain,  and 
which  has  never  quenched  it.  I  contemplate  a  people 
which  have  had  a  long  night,  and  will  have  an  inevitable 
day.  Thither  on  to  a  sacred  soil,  the  home  of  their  fathers 
and  the  fountain-head  of  their  Christianity,  students  are 

flocking  from  East,  West  and  South all  owning 

one  faith,  all  eager  for  one  large  true  wisdom  ;  and  thence, 
when  their  day  is  over,  going  back  again  to  carry  peace 
to  men  of  good  will  over  all  the  Earth." 

2.  Royal  Commission  on  University  Education  in  Ireland,  Appendix 
HI,  233. 


CONCLUSION 


".lave  come  to  the  end  of  our  study,  and  can  best  con- 
clude with  a  summary  review  of  the  position  of  Ireland, 
and  of  the  Irish  question  as  a  whole. 

Ireland  is  at  a  t^irning-point  in  her  history.  Her  future 
— final  decav  or  regeneration — depends  upon  the  direction 
she  takes  and  the  effort  she  puts  forth.  The  times  are 
critical  and  her  last  chance  lies  upon  the  board  ;  for  as 
far  as  one  can  see,  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years  will  settle 
her  fate.  Either  a  new  and  national  Ireland  arising 
with  soul  re-made,  with  recovered  strength,  and 
faculties  of  action  reorganised,  will  take  her  place  among 
the  nations,  and  bring  to  the  world  of  to-morrow  her 
tribute  of  material  wealth  and  spiritual  wisdom,  or  the 
process  of  a  final  and  fatal  decay,  making  of  the  Ile  Verte 
a  dead  and  empty  land,  fit  only  to  be  a  poor-house  and 
a  cattle-ranch  for  the  use  of  England,  will  issue  in  the 
proscription  and  death  of  the  Celtic  race,  who  will  thence- 
forth be  condemned,  like  the  Jews,  to  wander  the  world 
in  an  eternal  exile. 

A  last  battle  is  raging  in  every  direction  between  the 
elements  of  decay  and  the  forces  that  make  for  regenera- 
tion. The  old  oligarchy  is  fighting  desperately  on  behalf 
of  reaction,  but  there  is  within  its  own  ranks  a  liberal 
nucleus  which  tends  to  rally  round  the  ideas  of  reform, 
progress,  and  conciliation.  For  all  the  blind  fanaticism 
of  Ulster,  the  ferment  of  radical  and  democratic  principles 
is  beginning  to  change  the  very  nature  of  Orangeism. 
The  Nationalist  Ireland  of  the  people  still  suffers  cruelly 
from  that  arrest  of  social  development,  which  was  the 
result  of  oppression,  and  displa^-s  a  certain  lack  of  culture, 


CONCLUSION  513 

character  and  independence.  But,  for  all  that,  she  is 
beginning  to  shake  off  the  effects  of  the  past.  A 
competent  public  opinion  is  in  process  of  formation,  the 
number  of  free  and  enlightened  minds  is  growing  ;  Local 
Government  is  developing  the  business  sense  in  public 
affairs.  The  Castle  regime  stands  condemned  ;  or  at 
least  no  one  now  denies  that  reform  is  necessary.  The 
agrarian  question  is  on  the  road  to  solution  ;  though  we 
must  not  forget  that  there  may  be  many  sufficiently 
serious  difficulties  to  be  faced  in  the  future.  Theoretically 
the  problem  of  "  Congestion  ;'  is  solved  ;  but  why  is  the 
solution  not  applied  ?  It  is  true  that  the  over-taxation 
of  Ireland  is  heavier  than  ever,  and  the  economic 
conditions  of  the  country  worse.  But  new  economic 
motive-ideas  of  great  value  have  come  into  play  ;  the 
gospel  of  self-help,  co-operation,  technical  instruction, 
and  the  system  of  peasant  proprietorship  have  rendered 
possible  an  advance  the  signs  of  which  are  already  to  be 
seen.  Finally,  the  national  idea  has  received  from  the 
Gaelic  movement  a  great  and  fruitful  afflatus.  The  nation 
is  freeing  itself  from  psychological  dependence  upon 
England,  and  is  endeavouring  to  reconstruct  its  moral 
individuality'  by  a  return  to  national  traditions  and  to 
the  language  of  the  past.  A  breath  of  union  seems  to 
be  passing  over  the  country,  and  without  distinction  of 
class,  a  desire  for  conciliation  and  co-operation  is  little 
by  little  supplanting  the  old  spirit  of  civil  war.  If 
religious  tolerance  is  not  yet  victorious  over  sectarian 
fanaticism,  the  different  classes  at  least  seem  more  disposed 
to  work  together  for  the  common  good,  for  the  regene- 
ration of  Ireland.  It  seems  like  the  birth  of  a  new  soul  to 
Ireland. 

What  will  be  the  issue  of  the  present  crisis,  the  issue 
of  Ireland's  "  meditation  upon  self  "  ?  The  future  is 
obscure,  and  man  a  bad  prophet  ;  yet  may  we  not  hope 
that  there  will  come  of  it  all,  neither  a  corpse  nor  a  tomb, 
but  a  living  nation  and  a  regenerated  society  ?  May  we 
not  cherish  this  hope  when  we  see  so  many   symptoms 

2  L 


5i4  CONCLUSION 

of  new  life  in  an  organism  that  has  remained  youthful  ; 
when  we  know  that  it  is  only  minorities  who  perform 
great  deeds  in  the  history  of  peoples  ;  when  we  remember 
the  strength  of  resistance  that  Ireland  has  shown 
throughout  the  centuries,  the  powers  of  recuperation  which 
she  displayed  after  Cromwell,  as  after  the  Penal  Laws  ? 
One  remembers  the  well-known  saying  of  Curran  :  "  Ireland 
will  not  decay  until  she  is  ripe,  and  ripe  she  certainly  is 
not  yet." 

No  doubt  the  obstacles  in  the  road  of  progress  will  be 
many.  Were  they  all  surmounted,  Ireland  would  then 
find  herself  face  to  face  with  the  great  problem  of  modern 
society  :  how  to  adapt  democracy  (in  the  shape  of  a 
democracy  of  peasants)  to  the  new  conditions  of  life  and 
to  the  struggle-for-life  among  the  nations.  The  problem, 
thus  stated,  is  seen  to  contain  within  it  many  an  unknown 
possibility,  many  a  difficulty  that  can  be  forecasted.  But 
if  Ireland  is  to  re-make  herself,  and  prosper  in  the  remak- 
ing, there  is  one  further  condition  which  must  be  realised, 
a  condition  final,  if  not  primordial,  and  necessary  if  not 
sufficient  :  autonomy.  The  Irish  people  do  well  to 
regard  national  autonomy  as  a  right,  and  the  most 
inalienable  of  all  rights  ;  they  are  wrong  in  regarding  it 
as  an  end.  For  freedom  is  merely  a  means,  but  it  is 
the  only  means  by  which  a  nation  can  attain  full  develop- 
ment, or  live  out  her  life  in  its  integrity.  At  the  bottom 
of  the  maladies  of  Ireland,  beneath  dissension  and 
fanaticism,  wretchedness  and  decay,  lies  the  fundamental 
fact  of  foreign  domination.  "Not  foreign  government,  '  '  said 
Wolfe  Tone,"  but  foreign  rule  is  Ireland's  bane."  However 
just  or  beneficent,  foreign  law  is  hateful  because  it  is 
foreign.  What  must  be  the  case  then,  when  it  is  selfish 
and  oppressive,  materially  and  intellectually  ruinous  ? 
Ireland  needs  a  guarantee  against  British  exploitation. 
She  must  be  protected  against  the  drainage — mental, 
moral,  economic  and  financial — that  is  exhausting 
her  strength.  She  needs  laws  and  institutions  adapted 
to  her  customs  and  aspirations.       She  needs  a  strong 


CONCLUSION  515 

government,  and  a  government  can  be  strong  only  when 
it  is  national.  So  be  it  !  Let  the  existing  regime  be 
reformed,  say  the  Liberal-Unionists,  but  let  the  Union 
be  kept  and  respected.  Let  Ireland  be  spared  the  risks 
of  a  freedom  for  which  she  has  had  no  preparation.  It 
will  be  enough  to  make  the  Union  a  reality,  to  govern 
the  Irish  according  to  Irish  ideas,  to  conciliate  them  by 
an  intelligent  regime  of  reform  and  reparation,  to  do  for 
them  wisely  and  prudently  at  Westminster  what  an  Irish 
Parliament,  were  there  one,  would  do  probably  in 
revolutionary  fashion  at  home.  Experience  unfortunately 
shows  that  the  profession  and  the  practice  of  Liberal 
Unionism  have  been  very  different  things.  Born  to 
political  life  after  1886,  upon  the  conversion  of  Gladstone 
to  Home  Rule,  and  the  resulting  rupture  of  the  Liberal 
Party,  this  policy  had,  for  twenty  years  (with  the  exception 
of  the  short  interval  1892-95)  a  splendid  opportunity  to 
apply  its  doctrines.  Home  Rule  having  been  rejected, 
it  might  have  conciliated  Ireland  by  a  generous  and  truly 
remedial  policy,  and  made  of  the  Rebel  Island  a  Sister 
Island  for  all  time.  But  as  things  turned  out,  it  was  not 
easy  to  distinguish  the  Liberal-Unionists,  once  in  power, 
from  the  Tories.  We  will  not  deny  that  their  influence 
has  counted  for  something  in  those  measures  of  concession 
which  Unionist  governments  have  in  the  last  twenty 
years  passed  in  Ireland's  favour,  such  as  their  land  laws, 
their  legislation  for  the  Congested  Districts,  their  Local 
Government  Act,  and  the  Agricultural  and  Technical 
Instruction  Act.  But  the  political  result  of  it  all  has 
been  merely  to  put  the  essential  fact  of  the  situation 
into  clearer  relief — the  impossibility  of  satisfactorily 
governing  a  country  against  its  will — and  to  make  the 
necessity  for  Irish  autonomy  more  apparent,  more  crying 
than  ever.  Is  not  the  evidence  of  experience  conclusive, 
and  is  it  not  vain  to  hope  for  better  results  in  the  future  ? 
One  hundred  and  six  years  have  passed,  and  there  was  not 
one  promise  held  out  by  the  Union  but  has  been  belied. 
The  case  has  been  heard  :    Unionism  is  condemned. 


5i6  CONCLUSION 

But  we  are  not  therefore  driven  to  the  separation  of 
the  two  countries,  and  to  the  idea  of  an  independent 
Ireland.  So  long  as  England  remains  a  great  world- 
power,  separation  is  evidently  impossible.  "  St.  George's 
Channel  forbids  union,  the  Ocean  forbids  separation," 
said  G  rattan.  For  the  Irish,  Separatism  may  be  the 
dream  and  ideal  of  their  hearts,  but  as  a  policy,  it  is 
to-day  impossible. 

The  Union  being  condemned  and  Separatism  impossible, 
a  via  media  is  required.  But  what  is  to  be  its  nature  ? 
A  federal  tie  is  of  value  only  between  States  of  more 
or  less  equal  strength,  such  as  the  Swiss  Cantons  or  the 
United  States  of  America.  Several  small  states  might 
indeed  be  associated  with  the  fortunes  of  a  great  state, 
the  latter  finding  in  the  former  its  natural  equipoise. 
Such  a  federal  organisation  would  be  possible  and  may 
come  between  England  on  the  one  hand,  and,  on  the 
other,  Ireland,  Scotland  and  Wales,1  and,  perhaps,  the 
British  Colonies  as  well  ;  but  it  is  hardly  possible  between 
the  two  sister  isles  in  their  present  condition  of  hostility. 
Some  day,  perhaps,  a  tie  ôf  this  sort  may  be  created. 
But  what  Ireland  at  present  requires  and  demands  is  a 
subordinate  autonomy  in  all  properly  Irish  questions, 
self-government  of  the  largest  possible  scope,  whatever 
form  it  may  take  or  by  whatever  name  it  may  be  called. 
She  stands  in  need  of  a  National  Parliament  with  a 
government  responsible  to  that  Parliament,  the  supremacy 
of  the  Empire  in  all  Imperial  affairs  being  recognised  and 
assured. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  two  celebrated  Home  Rule  proposals 
of  1886  and  1893  more  or  less  satisfactorily  answered 
this  fundamental  desideratum.  In  any  case  they  were 
accepted  by  the  Nationalist  majority  without  arrière- 
pensée.  Since  1870  the  demand  had  been  for  Home 
Government,  or  Home  Rule,  and  not  for  Repeal  pure  and 

1  The  partisans  of  Home  Rule  All  Round  would  like  to  see  separate 
Parliaments  in  England,  Ireland,  Scotland  and  Wales,  for  the  control 
of  the  internal  affairs  of  each  of  these  countries,  the  affairs  of  the 
Empire  only  being  reserved  to  the  Imperial  Parliament. 


CONCLUSION,  517 

simple  (which  would  have  left  no  link  between  Ireland 
and  England  but  that  of  the  Crown).  The  two  Bills2 
were  similar  in  many  respects,  though  between  them 
there  existed  profound  differences.  Both  contained  many 
proposals  that  were  open  to  criticism,  or  even  unworkable, 
such  as  those  which  dealt  with  the  representation  (or 
non-representation)  of  Ireland  at  Westminster,  and  the 
financial  relations  of  the  two  countries.  Both  came  into 
collision,  as  is  well  known,  with  England's  chief  point  of 
pride,  the  unity  of  the  Empire,  and  with  her  chief  subject 
of  anxiety,  its  security. 3  The  first  was  summarily  rejected 
by  the  House  of  Commons  ;  the  second,  after  passing,  by 
a     small     majority,     through     the    lower     House,     was 


2  The  Eill  of  1886  provided  fori.the~establishmentin'Dublin  of  an  Irish 
Parliament  of  two  Chambers,  sitting  sometimes  together,  sometimes 
separately.  Ireland  was  to  pay  the  Empire  a  fixed  contribution,  a 
tribute  of  four  million  pounds  sterling  per  annum,  and  she  was  to  have 
no  representation  at  Westminster.  The  project  of  1893  created  in 
Dublin  a  Parliament  with  two  separate  Chambers.  The  tribute  was  re- 
placed by  the  allocation  made  to  Imperial  needs  of  the  proceeds  of  the  cus- 
toms (plus  a  temporary  subvention).  Ireland  was  to  have  80  members 
at  Westminster  who  should  vote  on  Imperial,  but  not  on  English  or 
Scotch  questions  (this  reservation  was  removed  by  the  House  of 
Commons  during  the  discussion  of  the  measure).  The  two  Bills  were 
alike  in  the  following  respects  :  the  creation  of  a  responsible  and 
separate  government  in  Dublin,  the  creation  of  an  Irish  Exchequer, 
the  right  of  a  legislative  veto  accorded  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the 
erection  of  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  English  Privy  Council  into 
a  sort  of  Supreme  Court  invested,  should  the  case  arise,  with  the  right 
to  annul  any  Irish  legislation  contrary  to  the  Constitution,  and 
an  exact  legal  distinction  between  purely  Irish  and  Imperial  questions. 

3  Fears  relative  to  the  security  of  the  Empire  would  be  quite  vain 
and  exaggerated  :  whilst  England  has  her  fleet  and  an  army  corps  in 
Ireland,  what  need  she  fear  ?  As  to  the  unity  of  the  British  isles,  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  how  any  menace  in  this  regard  would  be  increased  by 
the  existence  of  an  Ireland  conciliated  by  a  scheme  of  subordinate 
autonomy.  Home  Rule,  it  is  said,  will  lead  to  separation.  But  will 
not  the  Imperial  Parliament  retain  its  supremacy  after,  as  before,  Home 
Rule,  and  should  we  not,  on  the  contrary,  say  that  Home  Rule  must  be 
Great  Britain's  surest  guarantee  against  Irish  separation  ?  Another 
chief  reason  for  the  rejection  was  the  fear  of  seeing  Ulster,  or  more 
generally,  the  Protestants  of  Ireland,  oppressed  by  the  Catholic  and 
Nationalist  majority  :  a  very  extravagant  fear,  for  it  cannot  be  denied 
the  Irish  Nationalists  are  free  from  all  sectarian  animosity,  and  are, 
above  all  things,  anxious  to  see  a  United  Ireland.  Nationalist  Ireland 
has  always  protested  against  any  project  of  separating  Ulster,  under  a 
Home  Rule  regime,  from  the  rest  of  the  country,  by  giving  her  some 
special  status. 


5i8  CONCLUSION 

contemptuously  thrown  out  by  the  House  of  Lords. 
Home  Rule,  in  short,  was  conquered  by  Imperialism. 
After  this  double  check,  it  seemed  certain  that  the  cause 
of  Irish  autonomy  was  lost  for  ever  ;  and  the  more  so 
when,  in  1894,  it  was  abandoned  by  Gladstone's  successor, 
Lord  Rosebery.  In  1895  the  Conservative  Party  returned 
to  power  with  a  large  Unionist  majority.  "  Home  Rule  is 
as  dead  as  Queen  Anne,"  cried  a  Celtophobe  and  Imperialist 
in  triumph.  Mr.  Chamberlain  did  not  guess — and  who 
could  then  guess  ? — that  where  this  grave  was,  there 
would  be,  ten  years  later,  a  resurrection. 

While  the  Nationalists  have  not  ceased  to  agitate, 
others  also,  in  Ireland  itself,  have,  of  late  years,  begun  to 
interest  themselves  in  the  question  of  a  reform  of 
Government.  They  belong  to  that  section  of  the  Irish 
Oligarchy,  of  whose  liberal  tendencies  and  cleavage  with 
the  Ultras,  we  have  already  had  something  to  say.  The 
Irish  Reform  Association,  a  body  composed  of  Unionists, 
landlords,  and  men  of  the  middle  class,  who  wished  to 
do  something  for  their  country  and  who  were  not  satisfied 
with  the  negative  policy  of  the  Conservatives,  put  forward, 
in  1904,  under  the  presidency  of  Lord  Dunraven,  a  pro- 
gramme of  reform  which,  if  it  did  not  go  as  far  as  Home 
Rule,  yet  provided  a  platform  on  which  the  more  moderate 
Unionists  and  the  more  moderate  Home  Rulers  might 
meet.  The  programme  comprised  : — (1)  The  Devolution 
of  Private  Bills,4  and  of  such  other  Irish  affairs  as 
Parliament  should  delegate  to  an  Irish  deliberative  body — 
the  constitution  of  which  remained  to  be  decided 5  ;  (2)  The 
creation  of  an  Irish  Financial  Council  composed  of  24 
members,  half  of  whom  should  be  nominated  by  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  and  half  elected  by  the  people.  The 
function  of  this  Council  should  be  to  prepare,  control, 

4  Bills  concerning  local  or  semi-public  interests  (local  authorities, 
railway  companies,  etc.).  These  bills  give  rise  to  preliminary  enquiries, 
the  cost  of  which  falls  upon  the  interested  parties.  There  has  already 
been  a  delegation  of  Private  Bill  legislation  in  the  case  of  Scotland. 

5  See  the  plan  of  a  constitution  in  the  Crisis  in  Ireland  by  Lord 
Dunraven  (London  and  Dublin,  1905),  and  the  publications  of  the 
Irish  Reform  Association. 


CONCLUSION  519 

and  regulate  the  Budget  of  Ireland,  and  in  this  Budget 
to  dispose,  as  seemed  best  in  the  general  interest,  of 
certain  funds,  to  be  realised  from  economies  to  be  effected 
in  the  civil  service  (the  cost  of  which  is  at  present 
immoderate),  and  also,  perhaps,  of  other  supplies  to  be 
decided  upon,  the  use  of  which  should  be  delegated  by 
Parliament.6  The  rights  of  the  Imperial  Parliament  were 
to  be  completely  reserved  in  all  regards. 

Naturally,  the  extreme  Nationalists  denounced  this 
programme  of  conciliation  or  compromise  on  the  spot  as 
being  insufficient  and  inacceptable.  It  had  no  resem- 
blance, even  the  most  distant,  they  said,  to  the  self- 
government  to  which  Ireland  is  entitled.  They  could 
not,  however,  fail  to  perceive  and  to  rejoice  at  the 
spontaneous  support  that  had  been  given  to  Ireland's 
demands  for  autonomy  by  the  demand  of  the  more 
moderate  Unionists  for  reform. 7  The  extreme  Unionists  on 
their  side  received  with  shrill  denunciation  a  programme 
which  they  were  pleased  to  call  a  "  betrayal."  To  hear 
them,  one  would  suppose  that  Devolution  was  worse  than 
Home  Rule  and  Lord  Dunraven  more  dangerous  than 
Mr.  John  Redmond  or  Mr.  John  Dillon.  Such  was  the 
commotion  that  the  Government  took  fright  and  dismissed 
their  Chief  Secretary  for  Ireland,  Mr.  Wyndham,  who 
was  suspected  of  having  tacitly  encouraged  the  promoters 
of  the  Reform  Association. 

The  Unionist  Government  itself  fell,  as  everyone  knows, 
at  the  end  of  the  year  1905.     The  question  of  Irish  Self- 

6  For  example  the  Equivalent  Grants  or  the  product  of  land  purchase 
annuities  to  be  recovered  from  the  acquiring  tenants.  The  control  of 
Irish  expenditure  is  actually  exercised  by  the  Treasury  in  London. 
The  germ  of  these  propositions  was  already  to  be  found  in  Lord  Welby's 
Memorandum  to  the  Financial  Relations  Commission  (Filial  Report, 
p.  53  et  seq.). 

7  Some  moderate  Nationalists,  led  by  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  go  so  far 
as  to  support  the  programme  of  "  Devolution  "  which  they  accept  as 
a  payment  on  account  of  what  is  due  to  Ireland  ;  hence  the  breach 
between  this  small  conciliatory  minority  and  the  official  Nationalist 
Party,  a  breach  which  had  already  commenced  in  relation  to  the  Land 
Act  of  1903.  Mr.  William  O'Brien  has  been  excluded  from  the  United 
Irish  League,  of  which  he  himself  was  the  founder  ;  and  as  a  Member 
of  Parliament  he  is  in  opposition  to  the  official  Nationalist  Party. 


520  CONCLUSION 

Government,  helped  forward  in  a  subsidiary  way  by  the 

action  of  the  Irish  "  Reformists,"  rose  once  again  in  the 

United   Kingdom  to  the  plane  of  acute    actuality,  with 

the  coming  to  power  of  Sir  Henry  Campbell-Bannerman 

and  the  Liberals,    The  Liberal  majority  may  indeed  be 

heterogeneous  enough  to  comprise  at  the  same  time  such 

Liberals  as  had  remained  Home  Rulers,  and  such  as  had, 

with  Lord  Rosebery  after    1894,  come  to  regard  Home 

Rule  with  disfavour.      But   it  cannot  escape  from  the. 

necessity  of  doing  something  for  Ireland  in  the  direction 

of  self-government.      The  Prime  Minister  has  given  an 

undertaking  to  this  effect.      Doubtless  the  Liberals  will 

not  at  the  start  go  so  far  as  to  revive,  even  under  another 

name,  full  Home  Rule.      Although  English  opinion  does 

not  seem  to  be  by  any  means  so  averse  as  it  was  to  the 

idea   of   Irish   self-government,   such   a   step   would,    at 

present,    meet   with   very   lively   opposition   within    the 

Cabinet  itself.     The  desire  will  be  to  advance  gently  and 

by   stages.        Some   compromise   will   probably   be   first 

proposed,   some   middle   term   of   constitutional   reform, 

some  half-measure  which,  as  the  Prime  Minister  has  said, 

will  prepare  the  way  for  the  larger  policy,  for  an  ulterior 

measure  of  more  extended  autonomy.      Middle  courses 

between  the  Unionist  status  quo  and  true  autonomy  are 

certainly  not  lacking.       If  the  Nationalists  perceive  in  the 

solution  proposed  a   step  in  the  right  direction  they  will 

have  the  wisdom  to  accept  it.     But  it  is  certain  that  they 

will  not  and  could  not  accept  such  a  solution  as  a  definite 

and    final    settlement    of    their  constitutional    claims. 8 

England  must  go  further,  and  some  day — the  sooner  the 

better    if    she    desires    an    improvement    in    Anglo-Irish 

relations — pass  a  large  measure  of  genuine  Home  Rule 

which  will  give  Ireland  the  control  of  her  internal  affairs, 

8  Would  Home  Rule  itself  be  accepted  to-day  in  the  fashion  in  which 
it  was  accepted  in  1886  and  in  1893  ?  One  would  not  like  to  say  for 
certain.  The  more  Ireland  suffers,  the  more  exigent  will  she  be  in 
her  demands  and  the  more  difficult  to  conciliate.  "  No  man,"  said 
Parnell  on  one  occasion  (and  all  Ireland  thought  with  him),  "  has  the 
right  to  set  bounds  to  the  march  of  a  nation." 


CONCLUSION  521 

full  security  against  British  oppression  and  misgovern- 
ment,  and  which  will  permit  the  complete  development  of 
her  nationality.      Such  a  denouement  is  necessary,  right, 
and  inevitable.       For  when  Ireland  shows,  as  she  has 
already  begun  to  show,  progress  realised  in  the  path  of 
regeneration,  when  in  claiming  her  imprescriptible  rights, 
she  gives  proof  of  renascent  vigour,  it  is  impossible  to 
think  that  England  will  refuse  to  understand  that  she 
has   neither  motive   nor  means   to  withhold  autonomy 
from  the  Sister  Isle  any  longer,  and  that  in  her  own 
interests  she  must,  if  there  be  yet  time,  endeavour  to 
conciliate  her.       Should  we  not  see  in  this  new  spirit 
that  breathes  through  Ireland,  in  those  new  movements 
which,  by  their  educative  influence,  are  regenerating  at 
once  the  individual  and  the  national  character,  in  that 
desire  for  an  entente  which  now  tends  to  unite  class  with 
class  in  Ireland  for  the  defence  of  their  great  national 
interests,  a  justification  in  advance,   as  it  were,   of  the 
Emancipation  of  Ireland  ?    After  all,  is  not  Home  Rule 
(call  it  by  what  name  we  will),  as  has  been  said,   the 
best  of  Unionisms  ?  Is  it  not  the  most  solid  basis  and  the 
surest  guarantee  of  Anglo-Irish  union  ?     England,  more- 
over,   cannot   always   deny   to    Ireland   her   rights,   nor 
reserve  all  her  severities  for  the  Sister  Isle  and  all  her 
favours  for  the  Colonies.      She  cannot  always  allow  the 
Irish  question  to  remain  an  open  sore,  a  factor  of  trouble 
between  herself  and  that  "  Greater  Ireland,"  the  United 
States,  whose  friendship  she  has  so  long  desired  to  win. 
She  will  not  always  be  able  to  withstand  that  law  of  our 
times  which  has  evoked,  in  answer  to  the  Imperialism  of 
great  states,  a  renaissance  of  the  small  nationalities,  those 
living  symbols  of  justice  and  progress  that  have  risen  in 
protest  against  brute  force  and  the  relapse  of  civilisation 
into  barbarism.    Let  Ireland,  therefore,  repeat  to  herself 
that,  for  her,  freedom  is  bound  up  with  regeneration,  as 
consequence  with  cause,  or  product  with  factor.   The  forces 
which  will  gain  for  her  her  freedom,  if  she  desires  it,  are 
those  which  will  bring  to  her,  if  she  desires  it,  moral  and 


522  CONCLUSION 

intellectual  regeneration,  economic  and  social  reform. 
For  the  moment  we  can  but  say  of  her,  in  the  great 
words  of  Grattan  "  No,  I  do  not  despair  of  my  country. 
I  see  her  in  lethargy,  but  not  in  the  throes  of  death. 
She  is  not  dead,  but  only  sleeping " 


The  End. 


APPENDIX 

EDITOR'S     NOTES 


P.  1 1 6.  Devolution. — The  Irish  Reform  Association  does  not 
appear  to  enjoy  at  present  even  a  nominal  existence. 

P.  131.  United  Irish  League. — The  number  of  Branches  of  the 
United  Irish  League  in  August,  1908,  was  1,487. 

P.  198.  Police  and  Crime. — The  following  table  gives  for  1906 
the  population,  number  of  police,  and  number  of  convictions  for 
indictable  offences  for  Great  Britain  and    Ireland    respectively  : 


— 

Population 

No.  of  Police 

Convictions 

Great  Britain 
Ireland 

39,273,086 
4.386,035 

51,462 
11,144 

12,986 
I-303 

The  contrast  with  Scotland  is  still  more  striking.    The  following 
were  the  figures  for  1906  : — 


— 

Population 

No.  of  Polie  e 

Cost 

No.  of 
Convictions 

Scotland 
Ireland 

4,726,070 
4,386,035 

5,435 
n,i44 

^600,000l 

JÉL45I.5341 

2,155 
I-303 

See   Statesman's    Year  Book,    1908,  p.  15,  p.  45.   Parliamentary 
Paper  No.  215  of  Session  1908.    Hansard,  March  26,  1908,  p.  1642. 

1  These  figures  are  the  calculation  of  Mr.  T.  W.  Russell,  M.P., 
founded  on  the  Estimates  for  1908. 


524 


APPENDIX 


P.  235.  Number  and  Size  of  Holdings. — The  following  table 
gives  the  figures  for  1905  and  1906. 


Size  of  Holdings 

Number 
in  1905 

Number 
in  1906 

Increase  or  Decrease 
in  1905 

Increase 

Decrease 

Not  exceeding  r  Acre 

Above      1  and  not  exceeding    5  Acres    . 
»         5                 „                  15       „ 
»       J5                 „                  30       „ 
»       30                 „                  50       „ 
>>       5°                 .,                100       „ 
■>     I0°                 „                200       „ 
„     200                 „                500       ,, 

Above  500  Acres 

Total      .. 

78,001 

62,126 

154,560 

134,370 

1      74,6n 

57,707 

22,857 

8,046 

1,526 

80,693 

62,256 

154,228 

135,133 

74,753 

57,827 

22,837 

8,056 

1,561 

2,692              — 
130             — 

—  332 
763     |         — 
142             — 
120             — 

—  20 
10                 — 
35              — 

593,804 

597,344 

3,540              — 

Agricultural  Statistics,  1906,  p.  xxii. 

P.  289.  Land  Purchase. — M.  Paul-Dubois'  analysis  of  the 
dangerous  finance  of  the  Wyndham  Act  of  1903  has  been  confirmed 
by  events.  It  is  now  admitted  on  all  hands  that  in  this  respect 
the  Act  has  completely  broken  down.  The  landlords  have 
continued  to  receive  such  enhanced  prices,  as  compared  with 
previous  Acts,  that  if  present  figures  are  maintained  it  will  cost 
160  millions  to  buy  out  their  interest,  and  not  100  millions,  as 
was  anticipated  by  Mr.  Wyndham  in  1903  {Report  of  Treasury 
Committee  on  Land  Purchase  Finance,  February,  1908).  On  the 
other  hand,  Land  Stock  has  been  floated  at  such  a  discount  that 
if  the  process  be  completed  at  the  present  terms  and  rates,  the 
Guarantee  Fund,  i.e.,  the  Irish  ratepayers,  will  be  burdened  with 
a  charge  of  £545,000  a  year  for  68£  years.  {Cf.  Act  of  1903, 
Sees,  36,  38,  40).  In  these  circumstances  the  Irish  Party  demand 
that  the  losses  on  flotation  of  Land  Stock,  inasmuch  as  they 
result  from  fluctuations  of  Imperial  credit,  shall  be  met  by  an 
Imperial  charge.  A  hot  controversy  is  raging  upon  the  subject, 
but  no  decision  has  as  yet  been  taken  by  the  Liberal  Government. 
In  all,  agreements  for  the  sale  and  purchase  of  Irish  land  to  the 
amount  of  ^65,000,000  have  been  signed  under  the  Act  of  1903, 
and  about  £25,000,000  of  the  purchase-money  has  been,  up  to 
the  present,  paid  to  the  landlords.  The  losses  on  flotation  of 
Irish  Land  Stock  have  so  far  been  met  by  the  Irish  Development 
Grant,  a  purely  Irish  Fund  which  is  now  almost  exhausted.  The 
Bonus  is  paid  for  by  an  increasing  annual  charge  in  the  Irish 
Votes,  and  is,  of  course,  provided  not  by  the  British,  but  by  the 
Irish  taxpayer. 


APPENDIX 


525 


P.  3T9.  Trade  and  Commerce. — One  result  of  the  Act  of  Union 
was,  that,  from  the  date  of  the  amalgamation  of  the  Customs  of 
Ireland  and  Great  Britain  (1825)  until  1904,  no  statistics  of 
Irish  Exports  and  Imports  were  issued  or  kept.  This  work  is 
now  in  the  hands  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture.  The  following 
are  the  figures  for  1904,  1905,  and  1906  : — 


Year                         Imports 

i 

Exports 

Total 

I904 

1905 
I906 

£ 

53.185,523 

54793,183 
56,365,299 

£ 

49.398,536 

5I.I74.318 

55.598,597 

£ 

I02, 584,059 

105,967.501 
111,963,896 

It  should  be  noted  that  practically  the  entire  volume  of  Irish 
external  trade  is  with  Great  Britain.  Direct  Irish  trade  with 
foreign  countries  is  only  1.5  per  cent,  of  that  of  the  United 
Kingdom  as  a  whole.  As  a  result  of  the  shifting  of  the  commercial 
centre  of  gravity  of  Ireland  to  London,  practically  all  the  agencies 
of  transit  between  Ireland  and  Great  Britain  are  in  English  hands. 
The  newspapers  have  just  announced  (September,  1908)  the 
formation  of  what  is  practically  a  Transit  Trust  between  all  the 
great  English  Companies  concerned,  except  the  Great  Western,  as 
regards  their  carrying  trade  with  Ireland.  For  the  early  history  of 
Irish  industrial  and  commercial  development  see  The  Making  of 
Ireland  and  its   Undoing,  Mrs.  J.  R.  Green,  London,  1908. 

As  to  present  industrial  conditions  see  Thorn,  Directory  of  the 
Manufacturers  and  Shippers  of  Ireland.  Kevin  J.  Kenny,  Irish 
Manufacturers'  Directory  and  Year  Book  (Dublin,  1908.)  See  also 
The  Irish  Year  Book  issued  by  the  National  Council  (Sinn  Fein), 
Dublin,  1908.  Sydney  Brooks,  The  New  Ireland.  "  Pat." 
Economics  for  Irishmen,  Dublin,  1907. 

P.  335.  Over-Taxation. — M.  Paul-Dubois'  luminous  treatment 
of  this  subject  is  founded  for  the  most  part  on  the  Report  of  the 
Financial  Relations  Commission  1 894-6.  But  in  the  interval  the 
problem  has  become  much  more  acute,  and  the  burden,  both 
absolutely  and  relatively,  has  become  much  heavier  upon  Ireland. 
In  the  brief  space  at  our  disposal  only  the  barest  summary  can  be 
given  of  the  figures  which  prove  this  proposition  conclusively. 
Since  1894  the  population  of  Ireland  has  fallen  by  more  than  two 
hundred  thousand  ;   that  of  Great  Britain  has  increased  by  more 


526 


APPENDIX 


than  five-and-a-half  millions.  There  has  been  an  enormous 
increase  in  the  wealth  of  Great  Britain  but  no  corresponding 
increase  in  that  of  Ireland.  Judged  by  the  yield  of  the  income- 
tax,  the  taxable  capacity  of  Ireland  in  1894  was  about  1-22  of 
that  of  Great  Britain  ;  judged  by  the  same  test  in  1908  it  is  less 
than  1-30.  If  we  take  1  :  24  as  representing  the  present  relative 
incomes  of  Ireland  and  Great  Britain — an  estimate  far  from 
liberal  to  Ireland — Ireland  ought  to  have  contributed  last  year 
4  per  cent,  (or  one-twenty-fifth)  of  the  total  Revenue  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  As  a  matter  of  fact  she  contributed  6.29  per 
cent,  or  more  than  one-sixteenth.  On  tne  basis  of  these  figures 
she  ought  to  have  contributed  in  1907-8  a  total  revenue  of 
^6,120,000.  As  a  matter  of  fact  she  paid  .£9,621,000  ;  in  other 
words  she  was  over-taxed  to  the  amount  of  £3,501,000.  The 
strangest  thing  about  the  present  fiscal  arrangement  is,  that,  while 
ruinous  to  Ireland,  it  is  not  profitable  to  the  British  Empire.  The 
"  Imperial  Contribution  "  of  Ireland  in  1894  was  actually  £1  50,000 
more  than  in  1908.  The  explanation  of  this  is  to  be  found  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  interval  the  cost  of  her  home  government  has 
increased  by  more  than  £2,000,000.  This  increase  has  been  eaten 
up  by  a  horde  of  Government  officials.  A  comparison  with 
Scotland  exhibits  this  in  a  very  striking  light. 

Scotland  at  present  has  a  larger  population  than  Ireland.  But 
of  Government  officials  assessed  for  income-tax,  there  are  in 
Scotland  963,  in  Ireland  4,539.  Their  salaries  are  in  Scotland, 
£311,694  ;  in  Ireland,  ^1,412,520.  (Assessment  for  income-tax 
means  that  the  salary  of  the  official  in  question  exceeds  £160  a. 
year.) 

The  following  table  gives  the  comparative  figures  of  Revenue 
raised,  and  cost  of  home  government  in  Ireland  in  1893-4,  and 
1907-8  : — 


Year 

Total  Revenue 

raised 

in  Ireland 

Population 

Cost  of 

Home 

Government 

Profit 

to 

British  Empire 

1893-4 
1907-8 

£7,568,649 
.£9,621,000 

4,600,599 
4.378,568 

£5.602,555 
^7,8lO,000 

£1,966,094 
£l,8ll,000 

The  Revenue  per  capita  has  risen  from  £1  12s.  iod.  in  1893-4 
to  £2  3s.  1  id.  in  1907-8,  and  the  cost  of  Home  Government  from 
£1  4s.  4d.  to  £1  15s.  7d. 


APPENDIX 


52  7 


For  official  figures  on  all  these  matters  see  Parliamentary 
Papers  No.  215  and  No.  216  of  Session  1908.  Hansard,  March 
26,   1908. 

P.  354.  Emigration. — The  decline  in  the  figures  of  Emigration 
from  1 90 1  to  1905  has  not  been  maintained.  The  number  of 
emigrants  from  Ireland  in  1905  was  31,172  ;  in  1906,  35,918  ; 
and  in  1907,  39,562.  In  1Q07  Ulster  was  the  heaviest  loser  by 
emigration  of  the  four  Provinces.  The  figures  were  : — Ulster, 
14,513  ;  Munster,  11,288  ;  Connaught,  7,570  ;  and  Leinster, 
5,711.  The  estimated  population  of  Ireland  on  June  30,  1907, 
was  4,378,568.  The  following  table  shows  the  population  of 
Ireland  and  Scotland  in  1841  and  1901  respectively: — 


Year 

Scotland 

Ireland 

184I 
I9OI 

2,620,184 
4,472,103 

8,175,124 
4.458,775 

P.  362.  Poor  Relief. — The  following  table  shows  the  number 
of  persons  who  received  Poor  Relief,  indoor  or  outdoor,  from 
1903  toji9o6  : — 


Years 

No.  of  Persons 

1903 
IOO4 

I905 
1906 

452,241 
488,654 
558,814 
562,269 

A  complete  re-organisation  of  the  Poor  Law  System  is 
promised  before  191 1  as  a  complement  of  the  Old  Age  Pensions 
Act  of  the  present  year. 

P.  379  et  seq.  University  Education. — These  pages  are  of 
merely  historical  interest,  since  the  passage  of  the  Irish 
Universities  Act  in  August  of  the  present  year  (too8).  This  Act 
provides  for  the  establishment  of  two  new  Universities,  with 
their  centres  respectively  at  Dublin  and  Belfast.  The  Belfast 
University  is  to  have  but  one  constituent  college,  the  old  Queen's 


528  APPENDIX 

College,  re-modelled  and  with  an  increased  endowment.  The 
University  with  its  centre  at  Dublin  is  to  be  a  federal  institution, 
consisting  of  a  new  Metropolitan  College  to  be  established  in 
Dublin,  with  the  Queen's  Colleges  of  Cork  and  Galway,  also  re- 
modelled and  with  increased  endowments.  Both  Universities  are 
to  be  free  from  religious  tests.  The  scheme,  while  criticised  on 
the  ground  of  insufficient  endowment  and  on  other  points,  has 
been  accepted  by  the  leaders  of  Irish  opinion  as  giving  Ireland 
freedom  to  develop  her  intellectual  resources,  and  to  create  a 
living  centre  of  national  culture.  The  scheme  is,  in  its  main  fines, 
based  on  a  proposal  put  forward  some  three  years  ago  by  Mr. 
John  Dillon,  M.P. 

P.  581.  Royal  University  of  Ireland. — In  1906,  3,733 
students  presented  themselves  for  the  Examinations  of  the  Royal 
University. 

P.  404.  The  Gaelic  League. — In  the  present  year  (1908)  the 
Gaelic  League  has  890  Branches.  Its  annual  income  is  about 
£6,000.  The  average  membership  of  each  Branch  is  about  70. 
There  are  180,384  children  learning  Irish  in  the  Primary  Schools, 
and  3,898  in  the  Secondary  Schools.  The  literary  output  in 
Modern  Irish  is  so  large  that  it  is  not  possible  here  to  give  even 
a  brief  Bibliography. 

P.  445.  Politicians  and  Co-Operation — It  is  only  right  to  point 
out  that  several  Nationalise  Members  of  Parliament  are  members 
of  one  or  other  of  the  elective  Committees  and  Boards  which  form 
part  of  the  mechanism  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  ;  and 
that  certain  of  them,  such  as  Mr.  J.  P.  Boland,  M.P.,  and  Mr. 
Hugh  Law,  M.P.,  have  rendered  valuable  service  to  the  co- 
operative movement. 

P.  447.  The  Co-Operative  Movement — As  compared  with  the 
figures  in  the  text  there  were  last  year  (1007)  953  Co-Operative 
Associations  in  Ireland,  with  a  membership  of  95, 000, representing 
a  population  of  450,000,  or  ^one-tenth  of  the  whole  population  of 
Ireland. 

Co-operative  dairies  bave  increased  from  328  to  356  ;  Rural 
Banks  from  200  with  1 1 ,194  members,  to  270  with  16,000  members  ; 
Agricultural  Societies^from  131  to  172  (these  Societies  do  not  now 
attend  to  the  breeding  of  cattle)  ;  and  Societies  of  other  kinds 
from  1 1 6  to  131.  The  trade  turnover  of  the  societies  now  amounts 
to  over  two  millions-and-a-half  sterling  and  is  steadily  increasing. 


APPENDIX  529 

P.  461.  The  Religious  Question. — On  this  subject  consult 
Catholicity  and  Progress  in  Ireland,  by  Very  Rev.  M.  O'Riordan- 
D.D.,  now  President  of  the  Irish  College,  Rome  (London  and 
St.  Louis,  Mo,  1905),  a  reprint  of  a  series  of  powerful  articles 
from  The  Leader,  Dublin. 

P.  520.  Devolution". — The  Irish  Councils'  Bill  of  the  present 
Liberal  Government  was  summarily  and  contemptuously  rejected 
by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  Irish  National  Convention  of  May, 
1907. 


2  M 


INDEX 


Absenteeism,     15,   43,     116,   202, 

220,  242,  335." 
Administration,         Local,         see 

Government,  Local. 
Agents,  Landlords',  242. 
Agrarian    problems,    see        Land 

Question. 
Agricultural  Population,  The,  226, 

229,  325. 
Agricultural  Labourers,  The,  119, 

226,  245,  294. 
Agriculture,  70  et  seq.,  220,  227- 

236,    275,    292,    293,    312,    313, 

440-60. 
America,  45,  47,  75-78,   100,  130- 

135,  140,  351,  355,  et  seq.,  407- 
Anglican  Church  of   Ireland,    28, 

40,    44,    92,     93,      102  ;    Dises- 
tablishment   of,    78,    146,    270, 

350,  375.  467  et  seq. 
Anglicisation,  see  Gaelic  League. 
Annals  of  the  Four  Masters,  The, 

26,  421,  426. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  255. 
Arnold,  Matthew,    181,   367,  413, 

438. 
Ascendancy,    or    Oligarchy,    The, 

92-99. 
Ashbourne,  Lord,   271. 
Autonomy,  Irish  (see  Home  Rule). 

Bail  or  jail,  202,  203,  210. 
Bailey,  W,   F.,   275. 
Balfour,  Arthur,  84,  185,  310,  382 
Balfour,  Gerald,  86,  452. 
Banks,  319,  327,  328,  441. 
Banks,  Raiffeisen,  447,  449-50. 
Barlow,  Miss  Jane,  423. 
Beaumont,   Gustave  de,   56,    165, 

208,  227,  246. 
Bedell,  Bishop,   30. 
Belfast,  100-109  passim,  324,  326, 

462,  464. 
Berkeley,  Bishop,  45,  306,  501. 


Bessborough     Commission,     The, 

248. 
Bigger,  J.  G.,  81,  142,  143. 
Birrell,  Right  Hon.  A.,  287. 
Booth,  Charles,  334,  335. 
Boulogne  Negotiations,  The,  85. 
Boulter,   Primate,   34. 
Boycotting,    133,    136,    137,    138, 

228,  488. 
Boyne,  Battle  of,  33,  107,  108. 
Brehon  Laws,  The,  7,  17,  219. 
Brian  Boroihme,   12,    17. 
Bright,  John,  53,  63,  72,  112,  246, 

270. 
Buller,  Sir  Redvers,  216,  243. 
Burke,  Edmund,  21,  36,  38,  376, 

387,  464- 
Butt,  Isaac,  79,  81,  98. 

Canals,   328,   330. 

Carbery,   Ethna,  423. 

Carew,  Sir  George,  23,  25,  30. 

Carleton,    William,   422. 

Castle,  The,  Seat  of  Government, 

94,  134,  169,  187,  et  seq.,  196  el 

seq. 
Castlebar,  Battle  of,  49. 
Castlereagh,  Lord,  336,  338. 
Castletown,  Lord,  115,  344. 
Catholic  Association,  The,  57. 
Catholic  Emancipation,  47,  50,  57 

et  seq.,  118.  189,  212,  221. 
Catholics,  The  Irish,  28  et  seq.,  35 

et  seq.,  56  et  seq.,  90,  94,  95,  101 , 

105,   116,   117,   189,   190,  211   et 

seq.,  461-504. 
Cavendish,   Lord   Frederick,   83. 
Chamberlain,  Joseph,  102,  518. 
Character,  Irish,   1 51-61. 
Charles  II.,   32. 
Chester  Castle,  Raid  on,  78. 
Chesterfield,  Lord,  34,  42,  43. 
Childers,  Rt.  Hon.  Mr.,  339,   343, 

345- 


532 


INDEX 


Christian  Brothers,  The,  369,  372, 

457.  473,   503. 
Churchill,  Lord  R.,  102,  144,  355. 
Clan-na-Gael,   Si. 
Clanricarde,  Lord,  97. 
Clearances,  The,  71,  75,  97,  219, 

220,  234,   300,   357. 
Clergy,  The  Catholic,  31,  34  et  seq . , 

60,  83,  178,  371,  375,  380,  408, 

477-508. 
Clerkenwell,    Explosion,  The,  78. 
Climate,    152,    157. 
Clontarf,  12,  62,  67. 
Cobden,  59,  63. 
Coercion,    53,    56,   7^,   82,  et  seq., 

184-6,  204-5,  249- 
Columba,  St.,   11. 
Columban,  St.,   11. 
Commerce  and  Industry,  44-5,  73, 

319-35,  440-60. 
Concordat,  Proposal  of,   58. 
Congested  Districts,  296-318. 
Congested   Districts   Board,    The, 

273.  283.  3IO-l8>  450- 
Conn  of  the  Hundred  Battles,  71. 
Conscience,  Hendrick,  437. 
Constitutional  Agitation,    53,   59- 

6o,  120,  124,  127-150,  176,  439. 
Contempt  of  Court,  209,  210. 
Co-operation,  Rural,  293,  313,  389,. 

443-51- 
Cormac  MacArt,  6. 
Cowper,  Lord,   53. 
Crawford,  Sharman,   113. 
Criminality,  135,  198,  399. 
Croke,  Most  Rev.  Dr.,  488. 
Cromwell,  2,  30  et  seq.,  44,  466. 
Cullen,  Cardinal,  76-7,  486. 
Curran,  207,   514. 

Danes  or  Normans,  12,  13,90,  117. 
Davies,  Sir  John,    12,  23,  27,  152, 

214. 
Davis,  Thomas,  65,  67,  68,  98,  385, 

400,  403. 
Davitt,  Michael,  81,  142,  269,  291. 
Deasy's  Act,  224,  225,  246. 
Department    of    Agriculture    and 

Technical  Instruction,  313,  448, 

450,  452,  et  seq. 
Desmond  Clan,  The,  16,  24  ,26. 
Dettingen,  41. 
Devolution,   518,   519. 
Devon,     (Lord    and    the     Devon 

Commission),  222. 
Devoy,  John,  81. 
Dillon,  J.  B.,  65,   139,  487. 
Dillon,  John,  139,  141,  291,  519. 


Dottin,  Georges,  415. 

Doyle,  Dr.,  58,  60,  483,  484. 

Drogheda,   31. 

Drummond,  Thomas,  61,  108,  217, 

243- 
Dublin,  17,  49,  157,  168,  323,  326., 
Dufferin,  Marquis  of,  95,  97,  227, 

230,  259,  322,  360. 
Duffy,  Sir  C.  G.,  65,  76,  113,  209. 
Dunraven,    Lord,    115,    116,  280, 

344- 

Economic  Conditions,  44  et  seq., 
73.  119.  319-366,  389,  433,  440- 
60. 

Economic  Movement,  The  New, 
433,  440-60,   513. 

Edgeworth,  Miss,  157,  192,  422. 

Education,   38,  40,  47,   119,   367- 

90,    393.    416-19.    485-87.    490. 

502-5. 
Edward  III.,  Statute  of,  205. 
Edward  VIL,  177,  178. 
Electoral    System,    The,    47,    60, 

118,   139,   146,   221. 
Elizabeth,  20  et  seq.,  28,  117,  369, 

376. 
Emigration,  31,  40,  45,  70-5,  88, 

100,    118,    155,    234,    301,    305, 

350-60,  394,  434-5.  449.  507- 
Emmet,  Robert,  51,91,   121,174. 
Encumbered    Estates    Act,     223, 

243  et  seq. 
Estates  Commissioners.    See  Land 

Commission. 
Evictions,     243,  247.     See  Clear- 
ances. 
Exclusion  of  Catholics,    189,   211 

et  seq.,  464. 
Extremists,  The,   53,   63,  67,  77, 

78,  121  et  seq.,  174,  199. 

F's,  The  Three,  246,  248., 
Famine,  The  Great,  70  et  seq.- 
Famines,  42,   58,  82,  220,   308. 
Fenians  and  Fenianism,  75  et  seq., 

121   et  seq. 
Ferguson,  Sir  Samuel,  422. 
Financial     Relations    of    Ireland 

and  England,  7$,  197,  270-281 

passim. 
Financial   Relations   Commission, 

340  et  seq. 
Fingall,  Earl  of,   57. 
Finlay,  Father,  107,  443,  449,  506. 
Fiscal  System  and  Overtaxation, 

115.   335-50. 
Fisheries,  313. 


INDEX 


533 


Fitzgerald,   Lord   Edward,  48,  98. 

Fitzgibbon,  Lord  Clare,  48,    49. 

Fitzwilliam,  Lord,  48. 

Fontenoy,  41,  128. 

Forster,  W.  R.,  82,   199. 

France,  Ireland  and,  40,  41,  46, 
48,   181,   182, 

Froude,  J.  A.,  13,  32,  43,  86,  97, 
321. 

Fry,  Sir  Edward  and  Fry  Com- 
mission, 259W,  260  et  seq. 

Gaelic  or  Irish  Language,  The,  66, 

390-43I- 
Gaelic  League,  The,  390,  392-400. 
Gall,  Saint,   11. 
Garrison,  The  English  Garrison  or 

Colony,     15,     35      et    seq,     46, 

79,  89-106,   147,   151,   174,   188, 

190,  217,  240,  518. 
George  II.,  41. 
George  III.,   57. 
Geraldines,  The,    16,   18,   19. 
Giffen,  Sir  Robert,  227,  345. 
Gill,  T.   P.,  440,  453,  et  seq. 
Gladstone,  54,  82  et  seq.,  101,  118, 

139,   174,   179,    184,  222,  245  et 

seq-,  339.  343,  5 16. 
Gordon,  General,   308. 
Government,  The  Central,  94,  134, 

183-217.  (See  also  The  Castle). 
Government,   Local,  93,  96,   115, 

118,  133,  134,  168,  192-96,  456. 
Grabbers,  135,  136,  137,  198,  228. 
Grattan,  Henry,  36,   43,  46  et  seq., 

101,  180,  338,  393,  516,  522. 
Graves,  A.  P.,  423. 
Graziers,  135,  136,  228. 
Grazing.      (See  Pasturage). 
Gray,  E.    Dwyer,  142,  167,  210. 
Gray,  Sir  John,  139. 
Green,  J.   R.,   11. 
Green,  Mrs.,  422. 
Gregory,  Lady,  394,  421,  425. 
Grimshaw,  T.  W.,  Registrar-Gene- 
ra-1. 345.  352,  354- 

Healy,  Timothy,  140,  142,  176. 

Hedge-schools,  40,  369. 

Henry  IL,   13. 

Henry  VIL,  16,  18. 

Henry  VIII. ,  18  et  seq. 

Hoche,  48. 

Home  Government,  79. 

Home  Rule,  79-86,  101,  102,  112, 
119, 124,  127,  144,  149,  171,  179, 
180,  184,385,386,391,445,490, 
S 14-23. 


Hopper,  Miss  Nora,  423. 
Humbert,  General,  49. 
Hyde,     Dr.     Douglas,     354,     384. 
See  Gaelic  League. 

Ingram,  John   Kells,  65. 
Insurrection  of  1641,  29,  30. 

of  1798,  49,  121,  439. 

of  1848,  69,  439. 

of   1867,    121.       (See 

Fenianism). 
Invincibles,  The,  83,   121. 
Irelands,  The  Two,   33,  34,  35,  177 

et  seq. 
Irish     Agricultural     Organisation 

Society,  313,  443^5^. 
Irish  Brigade,  41,  58,  128,  181. 
Irish  Character,  154- 161. 
Irish     Parliament     in     the     18th 

Century,   44-51,  98. 

James  I.,  27  et  seq.,  246. 
James  IL,  32,  33,  107. 
Johnson,  Lionel,  156,  423. 
Judges,  The  Irish,  206-210. 
Justices  of  the  Peace,  201,  202. 
Juries  and  Jury-packing,  204,  210, 

et  seq. 
Justice,  186,  1S7,  188,  189,  201  et 

seq. 

Kane,  Sir  Robert,  227, 
Keating,  Geoffrey,  426. 
Kenmare,  Lord,  57. 
Keogh,  John,   57. 
Kickham,  Charles,  jj,  422. 
Kilkenny,  Confederation  of,   2^. 
Kilkenny,  Statute  of,  15. 
Kilmainham,  Treaty  of,  83. 

Lalor,  J.  F.,  75,  270. 

Land  Agents,  94,  242. 

Land  Commission,  251  et  seq.,  260- 
268,  271,  274,  282  et  seq. 

Land  Conference  of  1902,  115,  280. 

Landowners'  Convention,  99,  in. 

Land  League,  The,  82,  83,  no, 
129,  130,  135.  171.  248,   309. 

Land  Purchase,  see  Land  Ques- 
tion 

Land  Question,  The,  6,  15,  20,  et 
seq.,  42,  55,  70,  71,  71,  81  et  seq., 
92,  93.  97.  100,  103,  113,  218-, 
295.  304  3°5-  See  also  Western 
Ireland 

Land,  Income  from,  226,  325 
345- 


534 


INDEX 


Landlords   and   Landlordism,    82, 

91,   92  et  seq.,  217  et    seq.,  238- 

245,  245-295   passim. 
Larminie,  "William,  421,  423. 
Lavergne,  L.  de,  227. 
Leagues,  Irish  political,  57,  60,  76, 

82-84,  I29-38.  160,  213. 
League  of  North  and  South,  The, 

76,   109. 
League,  Gaelic,  400-412. 
League,  United  Irish,  130-38. 
Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  23  et  seq.,  50,  64, 

95.  145.  255,  3°6,  376,  382. 
Lever,  Charles,  157,  422. 
Limerick,  5^,  40,  193. 
Literature,  Anglo-Irish,  421-26. 
Early  Irish,  421. 
in   the    17th   and    18th 

centuries,  427. 
Modern  Irish,  426,  428, 

434- 
Logue,  Cardinal,  399,  409. 
Londonderry,   s^>   I02- 
Lord   Lieutenant,   The,    93,    184, 

187,  203,  348. 
Lunacy,  Statistics  of,  364,  365. 


Maamtrasna,  214. 
Macaulay,  33,  43,  209. 
MacCarthy,  Justin,  142. 
MacDonnell,  Sir  Antony,  189,  217. 
MacGee,  D  Arcy,  65. 
MacHale,     Dr.,     Archbishop     of 

Tuam,  60,  483-S6  passim. 
MacManus,  Terence  Bellew,  77. 
MacMurrough,  Dermot,  13,  162. 
MacNeill,  Swift,  142. 
Magistrates,    Resident,    94,     189, 

202-206. 
Mahaffy,  J.  P.,  414,  415,  416. 
Malachy,  King.  12,  17. 
Manchester  School,  7^,  223,  224, 

324- 
Manchester  Raid  and  Martyrs,  /S, 

177,  178. 
Mangan,  James  Clarence,  65,  422. 
Manuscripts,  Irish,  7,  12,  434. 
Martin,  John,  212. 
Martyn,  Edward,  195,  424. 
Mathew,  Rev.  Theobald,   62,  508. 
Maynooth,  409,  470,  479  et  seq-, 

504-506. 
Mayo,  Lord,  452. 
Meagher,  Thomas  Francis,  65,  67. 
Melbourne,  Lord,  61. 
Middlemen,  43,  220. 
Migratory  Labourers,  306,  307. 


Miledh  or  Milesius,  5. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  71,  345,  358. 

Mitchel,  John,  63,  65  et  seq.,  91, 

121,   123,  124,  172,  174,  498. 
Molyneux.  William,  45. 
Mommsen,   152,   170. 
Monteagle,  Lord,   115,  443. 
Moore,  George,  195,  423,  500. 
Moore,  George  Henry,  139. 
Moore,  Thomas,  98,  376. 
More,  Thomas,  301. 
Morley,  John,  106,  108,  190,  191, 

208,  244. 
Morris,  Lord,  188,  216. 
Mortality,  364 
Murray,  Archbishop,  485,  486 

Nation,  The,  66,  68,  142,  167 
Newman,  Cardinal,  380,  511 
New  Ross,  49. 

Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages,  7,  8. 
No  Rent  Manifesto,   82,   84,    126, 
309- 

O'Brien  Clan,  The,  19,  65. 
O'Brien,  Murrough,  227,  336. 
O'Brien,  W.  Smith,  64,  67,  68,  69. 

91,  98,   121,   139. 
O'Brien,  William,   130,    132,    148, 

165,  166,  279,  281,  291,  424,  519. 
Obstruction,    Parliamentary,    8 1 , 

125,   143. 
O  Connell,  Count,  58. 
O'Connell,    Daniel,    55   et  seq.,   65 

et  seq.,  78,  79,  98,  127,  129,  138, 

170,    178,    185,    209,    212,    393, 

439.  484- 

•  O'Connor,  Roderick,   13. 

I  O'Connor.  T.  P.,  142. 

;  O'Conor  Don,  The,  343. 

j  O'Curry,  Eugene,  380,  422. 

1  O'Donnell  Clan,  The,  16,  19. 

.  OTJonnell,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Raphoe, 

3"- 

O'Donoghue,  The,  139. 

O 'Donovan,  John,  422. 
!    O' Donovan  Rossa,  77,  121. 
i    O'Dwyer,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Limerick, 

;        344,  375,  383- 

1    O  Grady,  Standish,  423. 

j    O'Growney,  Father,  401,  405,  506. 

O'Hagan,  John,  65. 

O'Leary,  John,  77,  424. 

O'Leary,  Ellen,  422. 

O  Mahony,  John,  77. 

O  Moore  Clan,  The,  16,  20. 

O'Neill,  Aodh,  22. 

O'Neill  Clan,  The,  6,  7,  16.  22. 


INDEX 


535 


O'Neill,  Conn,  19. 

O  Neill,  Shane,  22,  23. 

O'Neill,  Owen  Roe,  29,  30. 

O'Rahilly,  Irish  poet  of  the   18th 

century,  34,  427. 
Orangeism    and    Orangemen,     33, 

48,  49,  58,  61,  63,  69,  79,  84, 

101,   106  et  seq.,   ill,   152,  202, 

383,  407,   512. 
Ormond,  Butler,  Lords  of.  16,  29. 
O' Sullivan,  Irish  poet  of  the  18th 

century,   427. 
Over-taxation,  335  et  seq. 


Pale,  The,  14,  16-18,  28. 
Palles,  Chief  Baron,  184,  207,  215. 
Palmerston,  222. 
Pan  Celticism,  438. 
Papacy,  The,  483  et  seq. 
Parliamentary    Party.  '  See    Con- 
stitutional Agitation. 
Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  79  et  seq., 

120,    125,    139,     144,    170,    269, 

316,439,  520. 
Parnellites,  The,  85,  139,  170. 
Pasturage,  71,  221,  222,  230  et  St  j., 

245,   294,   300,   310  et  seq.,   365. 

(See  also  Congested  Districts). 
Patrick,  St.,  8,   10. 
Peasant  Proprietorship  and  Pro- 
prietors. 269-278,  289-295,  354. 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  ji,  185.  197,  300, 

340. 
Penal  Laws,  The,  34  et  seq.,  47,  56, 

57,  88,  161,  219,  231,  452,  501. 
Perraud,  Cardinal,  39,  466. 
Perrot,  Sir  John,  19. 
Persico.  Mgr.,  488. 
Petty,  Sir  William,  230. 
Phœnix  Park  Murders,  83. 
Physical  Force  (See  Extremists). 
Physical  Types,  153. 
Pigott,  the  Forger,  S$. 
Pitt,  William,  49,  50,  336. 
Plan  of  Campaign,  The,  84,  135, 

309,  48 8. 
Plantations  and  Confiscations,  14, 

15,  20  et  seq.,  27,  31  et  seq.,  33, 

39,  219,  224. 
Plunkett,  Oliver,  32. 
Plunket,  W.  C,  57. 
Plunket,  Lord,  97. 
Plunkett,    Sir   Horace,    112,    115, 

lS9>  382,  440-60. 
Police,  196-201. 
Politicians,  139  et  s?q.,  146  et  seq., 

166  et  seq. 


■   Ponsonby,  George,  57. 

j   Population,    34,  71,  "75,  103,    146, 

350-354- 
Poyning*s  Law,  20. 
I    Presbyterians,  21,  j^,.  45,  48,  91, 

100-109,  370.      See  also  I 

Do;: 
Press,  The,  167,  1S3. 
Professions,  Statistics  of  the,  334. 
Proselytism,  Protestant,  37-39,  74, 

369.  370,  464,  466,  475-6. 
Protestants,     Episcopalian.       See 

Anglican  Church  of  Ireland. 


Queen's  Colleges.  67,  379-381,  3 84. 

485-6. 
Queen  s   Lniversity,  379,  381. 

Races  in  Ireland,  Question  of,   5, 

89,  90,  152,   153. 
Radicalism,  Irish,   101-109. 
Railways,  294,  319,  328-333. 
Recess  Committer,  115,  4:2. 
Redmond,    John,    128,    139,    141, 

14S.  2S1,  452,  519. 
Refugees  from  France,  41. 

.  462,  470. 
Renan,   156,   159. 
Repeal,  61  et  seq.,  65,  79,  127,  139, 

184,  217. 
Resident  Magistrates,  202  et  seq. 
Ribbonmen   and    Ribbonism,    ;S. 

60.  76. 
Ridgewav,  Sir  West,  217. 
Rolleston,  T.  W..  423. 
Rieger,  63. 

Rosebery,  Lord,  54,  520. 
Roval  University.  The,   169,   381, 

381,  384. 
Ruskin,  216. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  54,  74,  213. 
Russell,  G.  W.,  156,  423. 
Russell,  T.  W.,  113,  281,  30S. 


I    Sadlier,  John,  y 6,  139. 

j    Salisbury,  102,  129,  137,  146,  249. 

i    Savings  Banks,  319. 

!  Scotch,  The,  21,  44,  91,  100,"  103. 
105,  310,  360. 

[   Scotus  Erigena,   11. 

!    Senchus  Mor,  7. 

i    Senior,  Nassau,  230.  347. 

j  Separatism.  (See  under  Extre- 
mists). 

1   Sexton,  Thomas,   141,  227. 


536 


INDEX 


Sheehan,  Canon.  157,  163,  31S. 
494.  soi. 

Sheil,  R.  L.,  56,  60. 

Sheridan  Affair,  The.  200. 

Sigerson.  Dr..  S,  421,  423. 

Sinn  Fein,  126.  See  also  Extre- 
mists. 

Smith,  Goldwin.  21,  49. 

Social  Characteristics,  15S,  161, 
168  et  seq. 

Spenser,  26.  35,  87. 

Sqnireens,  43. 

Stanley,  Lord  Derby,  370,  393. 

Stephens,  James,  "~,  121. 

Strafford,  19,  21,  29,  211. 

Strongbow,  13. 

South' African  War,  The,  -143,  145. 
172.  173.  17S. 

Sullivan,  T.  D.,  142,  422. 

Swift  42.  43,  44,  4;,  54,  178,  220, 
3/8,  433- 


Talbot  de  Malahide,  Archbishop, 

32. 
Tallow  Affair,  The,  137,  215. 
Tara,  6,  7,  61. 
Taxation,   Excessive,  of  Ireland, 

:  '  :  .  :'  seq. 
Technical  instruction,  451-58. 
Tenants,  34,  42,  71,  82-84,  92,  94, 

103,    113,    116,    1   8,      19,    151, 

163,   164,  218-395.      See    Land 

Question. 
Tenants'  League,  76,  129,  222,,  246. 
Tenants  Evicted,  282,  286. 
Thackeray,  150. 
Tighearnach,   12. 

•   The,  85,  356. 
Tithes,  —     (See  Anglican  Church 

of  Ireland). 
Tone,  Theobald  Wolfe,  48,  49,  91, 

100,  121,  123,  174,  378. 
Town  Tenants,  295. 
Trinitv  College,  93,  123,  151,  243, 

3/2,"  376-379.  4I3-I5- 
Tvnan-Hinkson,  Mrs.,  423. 


Tyrconnell,   17  et  seq. 
Tyrone,  17  et  seq. 

Ulster,  100-109.  (See  also  Presby- 
terians and  Protestantism). 

Ulster  Custom,  103,  113,  246. 

Union,  Act  of,  50,  SS>  95»  10 1, 
146,  174,  183,  184,  "323,  337. 

Unionists,  Irish.  99,  100,  109  et  seq. 
(See  also  Garrison,  The  English). 

United  Irishmen,  The,  48,  97,  100, 
109. 

United  Irish  League,  130-38,  279. 

University  of  Dublin.  (  See  Trim  ty 
Collegej. 

University  College,  380,  383. 

Victoria,  Queen,   176,   178. 

Vinegar  Hill.  49. 

Volunteers,  The,  48,  97,  102,  322. 

Walsh,  Dr.,  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 

409. 

Wealth,   Irish  Natural,   319,   320, 

441- 
Wellington,   169. 
Wesley,  437. 
Western    Ireland,     15  7- 161,    238, 

296-318,  355,  356. 
Whatelv,    Archbishop,    372,    373, 

393» '485. 
Whiteboys,   The,  42,   58,  60,   76, 

122,   135,  221. 
William   III.,   33,    100,   107,    161, 

219,  321,  351. 
Windisch,  415. 

Workhouses,  72,  307,  361,  362. 
Wyndham,  George,  86,   112,  191, 

281,  418,  519. 

Yeats,  W.  B.,  156,  392,  423  et  seq. 
Young,  Arthur,  43,  220,  227. 
Young  Ireland,  61,  63,  65  et  seq. 
76,  78,  98,  120,  121,  139,  170. 

Zeuss,  Celtic  Scholar,  394. 
Zimmer,  Professor,  395,  415. 


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